Trying Is What Matters
by The Dragon Squid
Summary: His father knew. Gobber knew. He hopes. He thinks it's time. Time to show them he can do it. Even though their may be something on a large scale beyond him that awaits, no matter how hard he knows it is, Trying Is What Matters.
1. Chapter 1

**New story! I've got some intriguing plans for this one.**

**Chapter 1:**

A small thin boy about the age of fifteen is sleeping peacefully in a triangular wooden house.

This is Hiccup Haddock, the thin, green eyed auburn haired boy in the village of Berk.

Which is a remote island in the middle of nowhere. Granted it may not look like much, with the small sheep fields, the pointed and rugged looking houses, but this wet heap of rock packs quite a few surprises.

Berk has been here for seven generations, but every rugged building is new. They have many things to keep themselves preoccupied on Berk. From fishing, hunting, and pleasant sunset views.

One of the surprises about Berk, is the pests.

No, they are not rats. Or mosquitos.

It was the middle of the night, and the sound of giant flying pests roaring threw the boy awake, and he jumped out of bed. Knowing that familiar sound, he smiled excitedly. He then chucked the sheets carelessly back over the bed, and sprinted towards the creaky wooden stairs.

But he forgot about a little something that is at the top of the stairs. He tripped on that devious uplifted wooden shard as usual and fell down the stairs, his body and face hitting every step and grunting in pain with each, till he arrived at the floor of the house.

His body aching in pain, he stumbled up as fast as his little human legs would let him. He grabbed the front door handle, and pulled with all his might, which wasn't much, and opened it.

A bright red large flying reptile was merely thirty feet from him, and gathering up a herd of sheep. It turned at the sound of the door screeching against the floorboards, and noticed the boy.

Its face contorted with rage, it fired straight away at the boy, who flinched and gasped in fright, and he slammed the door on the flames. He could feel the warmth of them from the other side.

"Dragons." He spoke excitedly.

The boy had been waiting for the next dragon raid for just over a month now. He had always wanted to take down a dragon to impress his father & the village. Unfortunately, he hadn't achieved this goal, yet.

He opened the door slowly, carefully this time. Now hastily avoiding the flames now burning the opposite side, he leaned away from them. He glanced outside, in case the dragon wanted to cook him alive. Once open, the path was clear. The dragon and sheep were gone.

The boy ran out into the chaos. Vikings were running everywhere, in and out houses. Some of which were already on fire.

The majority of people in the world would probably leave if their home was getting attacked by dragons every month or two. But not Berkians.

A number of Vikings were chasing after all sorts of dragons stealing livestock, many of which were trying to avoid the Vikings and their weapons.

Hiccup was bumping into almost every Viking in sight, by accident that is. Each one yelling the same thing afterwards.

"What are yeh doin' 'ere?"

"Get inside the forge!"

"What are you doing out here?!"

"Go back to the forge! You don't belong here!"

Just then a dragon that appeared to look like a large flying rock, spat a ball of fire at a Viking who dodged it but was sent flying, and crashed into Hiccup.

"Arrgh!" He yelled in Hiccups face. He then stood up, his mouth twisted up into a crazy sort of smile, and cheerfully he grunted, "Mornin'!" As if the situation was a daily occurrence.

The Viking grabbed his axe, and charged off after another dragon.

_Come on come on. _Hiccup thought as he ran._ I need to find an axe or sword or som-_

He was suddenly pulled back by a huge and mighty fist. And it was just in time too, he nearly had run into a line of fire that a passing dragon decided to light.

"What is _he_ doing out aga- WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT?! Get inside now little boy!" Barked the huge Viking who grabbed him by his shirt.  
>That wasn't any ordinary Viking that had seized Hiccup, that was Stoick-The-Vast. Chief of the village.<p>

The man's fiery red beard and thick brown cape waved in the wind of the night, as he observed the scene of fighting dragons and Vikings around him.

"What have we got this time?" Stoick asked the closest Viking to him in his deep commanding voice.

"Nadders, Zipplebacks, Gronckles. Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare." The other Viking replied.

"So there hasn't been any Night Furies yet?" Inquired the Chief.

There was a large fiery explosion near them accompanied with a couple of screams, which sent flaming embers in all directions. A few landed on Stoicks shoulder.

"Luckily, none so far sir." Replied the Viking, who was hiding behind his shield in an effort to stop the embers landing on him.

"Good," said Stoick, relieved. As if finding out there wasn't going to be a thunderstorm tonight. He then flicked off the embers with his fingers as if they were a mere nuisance.

Hiccup was disappointed by the chief's words, but he did as he was told, and headed to the forge. He kept his eyes on the night sky in case he ever managed to catch a glimpse of the terrifying Night Fury.

Instead, he only saw the usual dragons. He knew that Night Furies usually only came around the end of the dragon's attacks, but he remained hopeful.

There was a reason as to why Hiccup always wanted to see a Night Fury. A secret that only he, and a select few of others knew.

Hiccup really wasn't paying attention to where he going, and ended up walking into a wall on the outside of the forge. He fell back with a grunt and made an exasperated whisper at himself of how clumsy he is.

"Ahh, yeh took your time! I thought this party was going to be over by the time yeh got here!"

Hiccup strode in through the forge and put his apron on. Passing the large figure of the yellow moustached & two prosthetic limbed Viking. He looked back at the impatient blacksmith, Gobber, and muttered, "I might just take a little more next time, so I can avoid the meathead with an attitude!"

Hiccup initiated his work at the forge, mending broken swords, fixing axes & making nets. As he pulled hard on the bellows to get the heat going, he chuckled at Gobbers scoff in the background. "The meathead with an attitude..." He repeated to himself. "Says the little toothpick..."

Being the apprentice to the blacksmith was hard, but enjoyable work. Hiccup had been working at the forge since he was littler, if that was possible. At least it had its qualities, he could look outside from time to time, and see what the other villagers were doing.

He chanced a glance outside after several minutes, making sure Gobber wasn't looking. He noticed the other teenagers his age doing their jobs too. They were the bucket brigade. They were charged with the responsibility of extinguishing the fires.

As Hiccup looked out, he observed them all. Firstly, the largest, nicest & most nervous bloke of the group is Fishlegs Ingerman. He had a huge rounded face, and body. He has a funny character and he is smart, he loves reading too. He also has short blonde hair and green eyes.

Next were the twins. They are very alike, obviously, one being male and the other female, they fight each other a lot over the tiniest things. The guy is named Tuffnut Thorston, and his sister is Ruffnut Thorston. Both have long darkish golden hair and blue eyes. They are average sized Vikings.

Snotlout Jorgenson is the next guy, he has a large muscular build. Dark brown hair, blue eyes and a true Viking demeanour. He is actually Hiccups cousin, but he doesn't treat Hiccup like one. Bullying, commanding attitude. Reasonably good looking, to the girls.

Last but not least, is Astrid Hofferson. Tall, bright golden hair and stunning blue eyes, these attributes make her stand out. Average sized Viking, but slender and great physique. Tough and determined personality and quite attractive to the guys.  
>She had just threw a bucket on water onto the side of a house along with the others. The fire now extinguished, she grabbed her axe from the ground nearby, and charged off to try to kill a dragon.<p>

None of these people knew Hiccups secret.

"Oi! Get back to work! Or I'll throw you into the fire!"

Hiccup knew better than to ignore the blacksmith, not doubting the Viking would follow through on the threat. So he got back to work.

_Bang, clang, bang. _Went the hammer onto the hot metal. Hiccup was very focused on his work, currently mending an axe that Gobber just passed through.

He finished, and dunked the blade edge of it into a nearby bucket of water. It sizzled and hissed. It was now ready for battle. He knew the axe as the one he built about a year ago, and only saw it when the dragon raids came.

"Is it done yet?!"

That wasn't Gobbers voice. Those sounds didn't belong in his voice box.

"Oi you, is it ready?" Demanded the voice again.

"My apprentice is working on it! Yeh'll get it back soon! Be patient!" Barked Gobber. His long moustache swaying dangerously.

Hiccup wheeled around, and faced the outside window. There stood Astrid, looking murderous. He nearly dropped the axe in fright.

Hiccup instantly hid his right arm behind him, hiding it from view. He walked over to the window, and placed the axe on the counter.

"H-hi Astr-"

"About time!" She snapped.

She snatched the axe off the counter with no word of thanks and ran off. Her hair billowing behind her.

_That's Astrid's axe?!_

Hiccup looked at his hands as if they had been touched by the gods.

_So I built Astrid's axe, and she doesn't know._

He sighed & sat down, temporarily forgetting about his work. Wondering if she would even care if she did know. But he knew, he just knew, as his father did, that everyone would want to know everything about Hiccup when, that's right, _when_ he finally took down a Night Fury.

He raised his right arm, pulled his sleeve from his green shirt back, and looked at his wrist for the first time tonight at last, he studied and observed the –.

**End of Chapter 1.**

**Got some great plans for this story, I'm excited to share them!**

**Please leave a review, follow or favourite if you like it. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

Just then a really loud drawling, ballistic screeching could be heard. Hiccup leapt to his feet, and stared out the window. Excitement shook him from head to toe.

"Don't even think about it!" Squawked Gobber. Who came bustling around the forge and hooked Hiccup by his shirt with his peg prosthetic before he could escape.

"Oh come on, let me out pleaase," drawled Hiccup. Making his best attempt at puppy dog, pleading eyes.

He shook his head, and placed him down. "You're too young, and you know it lad. I promised yeh father I wouldn't let yeh out there for quite a while. Yeh've made yer attempts, and failed."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "_Two_ minutes. That's all I ask, it will make my life infinitely better. It might even get me a date!"

Gobber smirked. "No. Plus, how would yeh take it down anyway? Yeh can barely lift a weapon, let alone a heavy bola. Yeh can't use or throw one lad."

"Okay, true. But this will throw it for me." He stepped backwards and revealed his sixth edition of the series, the bola launchers. This one nicknamed 'The Mangler'.  
>Hiccup tapped the launcher proudly, but having not looking where he tapped it, he accidently nudged the spring.<p>

The mangler lurched and sent a bola without a net flying at quick speed, it shot past Gobber and hit a man in the window who just placed a few broken weapons on the counter. His contorted to a twisted sort of smile, and he fell backwards with a crash.

Gobber, infuriated, grabbed Hiccup with his real hand.

"SEE THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Stop all this nonsense boy! Yeh not old enough!"

Hiccup deflated, almost cowering under the Viking's gaze.

"It was only a mild calibration issue…" he mumbled.

The blacksmith sighed and placed him back on the ground. "Look, just wait about a year or so. Hopefully some of…" Gobber waved his peg hooked prosthetic in Hiccups general direction, "This, will have improved by then."

Hiccup displayed an amused but irritated expression. "You just gestured at all of me."

"That I did. Now back to work!"

The interchangeable limbed Viking dropped a heavy sword into Hiccups hands, and he nearly collapsed to the ground with the weight.  
>Gobber snorted, and turned around to resume work.<p>

Hiccup moved slowly over to the sword sharpening wheel where he dropped the sword onto a bench next to it. It weighed a tonne to him!

He placed the sword's blade edge onto the wheel and resumed work.

_One day, I'll get one. Because killing a dragon, is everything around here. Killing any dragon is worth celebrating.  
>But the ultimate prize, the most powerful, most dangerous dragon is known as the dragon of the night, or in short, the Night Fury.<em>

He heard more familiar screeches of the Night Fury plummeting towards Berk to unleash its fiery destructive power. Hiccup was burning with jealousy that he couldn't go out there and at least try.

_Night Furies have never been killed, captured or even seen before. They never steal food and never show themselves._

_Most amazingly though, they never miss their targets._

_However, I will be the first to capture and kill a Night Fury.  
>I believe I will, and so does my Dad. For a reason that only we and Gobber know, for now.<em>

More screeching sounds kept on coming. Hiccup couldn't take it anymore, so he stopped what he was doing, and raced to the window.

He looked out and saw one of the village's catapults had been completely destroyed. Many of the Vikings who had operated it were running back towards the village.

"Look…" Began Gobber, he came around the corner and looked at Hiccup. "Things are getting rough out there, I've got to go out and help. You just stay put…there. OKAY?!"

He just nodded in reply.

Gobber eyed him suspiciously. "You know what I mean. If I come back and you're not here, I'll…" He trailed off.

"I know."

Gobber grabbed an attachable axe with his right hand, and securely locked it into his left hand prosthetic. He then limped as quickly as he could out of the forge. Yelling a battle cry.

_Yes! _Hiccup thought with joy.

He grabbed his bola launcher named The Mangler, reloaded it and attached a net to the bola. He chucked his apron off carelessly too. Once done, he sprinted out of the forge.

As he ran, many Vikings gave him annoyed glances. A couple even said something along the lines of "Where yeh goin'? Get back here!"

"Yeah I know, I'll be back soon!" He muttered back to himself.

When he finally arrived at the top of a hill, overlooking the ocean and another undamaged catapult, he set up his invention.

Once done, there was basically no noise at all. It was eerily quiet.

He raised his right arm and looked for the second time tonight, at his birthmark on his wrist. Situated right between his hand and elbow.

His Dad did not know what dragon Hiccup's birthmark resembled for certain, but it was believed to be the Night Fury. Hiccup believed that it was a Night Fury birthmark on his wrist.

He had always been told by his dad that he had been chosen by the gods to capture and kill whatever the dragon was. Presumed to be the Night Fury, his dad wanted to wait till Hiccup was older and strong enough to try.

Even though he had tried in the past, he had not succeeded. His inventions had unfortunately failed him when he needed them most.

Hiccups father wanted to keep the dragon mark a secret from the village till he managed to kill it first. So when he did, he would be branded a hero and great honours. He believed it was his destiny.

It was difficult concealing the dragon symbol from everyone, as earlier this night when he hid his arm from Astrid's view. But he had managed it. Long sleeves help.

His dad did tell Gobber, and he believed it to be the same thing. That Hiccup was destined for it.

His dragon birthmark on his wrist was completely black, the dragon had two large wings, and several pointed ears around its head, also a long tail with manoeuvrable fins at the end. It had four legs with sharp claws at the toes of each paw. Its mouth was open revealing one row of teeth on the bottom and one on the top of its jaw.

Hiccup ceased looking at his Night Fury birthmark, and looked up into the sky for a sign of the dragon.

"Come on." He whispered to himself. "Give me something to shoot at. Any dragon, preferably a Night Fury, come on."

He kept his eyes peeled and his ears open.

He heard some dragon growls and grumbles from up in the air, and looked but saw nothing. However, after more careful observation, he noticed several stars seemed to be blinking in a sort of wave.

His eyes widened in surprise. It was a dragon! The outline of a black dragon circling around in the night sky.

It was way out of range, so he waited.

Eventually, he lost sight of it as dawn started to approach. It was getting brighter.

_No! _He thought. _Come on, please!_

Suddenly he heard the familiar screeching and deafening whistling of the plummeting Night Fury breaking the sound barrier, perhaps for the last time for a few months.

He squinted and saw the dragons outline diving at top speed towards the unmanned catapult.

Hiccup aimed, and watched. Ready to release his bola once it was in range.

The Night Fury unleashed a bright purple ball of fire onto the catapult, obliterating it and sending debris scattering in all directions. The Night Fury that appeared to be a black blur side swiped it and began to fly away.

Hiccup seized his chance, and pulled the lever.

The force of his mangler lurching violently threw Hiccup backwards, and he fell onto the grass on his back.

He leapt up once again, ignoring his aching back, and saw the netted bola speeding off into the sky at high speed, straight towards the Night Furies path.

Hiccup held his breath. His body shaking with hopeful exhilaration. He dare not blink.

**End of Chapter 2.**

**Merry Snoggletog and have a Happy New Year everyone!**

**PS: If you don't know why I said 'Snoggletog' instead of Christmas, go and watch the short film called 'Gift Of The Night Fury' by DreamWorks Animation.  
><strong>**:)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A second passed, then _WHAM!_

A pained shriek of surprise and fury pierced his ears, as he saw the outline of the dragon black blur now falling down into the distance towards the forest, screeching at the top of its lungs, before once again, silence reigned.

"I…"

"I did it."

"I actually did it!"

He was just about to scream with joy and run towards his father, except a massive face and body of a Monstrous Nightmare suddenly climbed over the cliff, and stared at him.

It used one of its legs to flatten his bola launcher in one easy crunch.

"Oh…Thor."

Hiccup sprinted away as fast as he possibly could. Just as the dragon behind him reared up and prepared to fire.

He screamed and ran, as the dragon gave chase he managed to dodge a couple of fire blasts from the fuming dragon behind him. The dragon's bursts of fire repeatedly but narrowly missed, till Hiccup saw a tall and thick pole in front of him, and hid behind it.

The dragon fired at the pole from the other side, and the fire acted like lava. Its flaming liquidness dripped slowly down the sides of the pole.

He knew this was it, the dragon was going to k-

A massive figure of a Viking bounded out of nowhere and wrestled the dragon.

Hiccup leapt out of the way and saw his father tackling the dragon.

His father had a grip around its long neck, but eventually he released and stood up. The dragon stood up too and roared at the large Viking. The Monstrous Nightmare fired, but next to nothing came out, only a few drips of it.

"You're mine." Hiccup's dad spoke menacingly.

The dragon looked wary and anxious. It's main defence gone.

Stoick charged at the dragon, kicked and punched it multiple times just before it fled away into the sky.

The flames burning on the pole had chewed the base of it out, and then the pole came crashing down. Hiccup saw that it was a flaming torch pole, the Vikings used them to see the dragons flying at night.

The metal container used to keep the wood for the fire at the tip of the pole came off its hinge, and went tumbling downhill.

As Hiccup turned around to watch, he noticed all the other villagers had come around him to see the commotion. He instinctively pulled his sleeve up to his hand and tucked his right hand into his pocket.

He watched the metal container going further and further downhill, destroying everything in its path. It went through a few houses and obliterated many pathways.

He noticed in the distance, a group of Vikings had some Deadly Nadders trapped in a net, but as the container came towards them, they fled to get out of its way. The Nadders got out of the net and flew away with the sheep they had captured prior.

Hiccup turned around and faced his father who was looking furious.

"Sorry…Dad."

Hiccups father, who is the chief of Berk named Stoick Haddock, Stoick-The-Vast being his nickname, just continued staring at him.

Hiccup looked around at all the Vikings, all of them had angry, irritated faces. He noticed Gobber in the crowd. He was shaking his head, looking frustrated, but also a little sympathetic.

"I caught a Night Fury Dad! I saw it go down towards the forest, let's take a search party out there-"

Many of the Vikings around laughed.

"Why weren't you in the forge?! I told you to go to the forge!" He interrupted. Looking thunderous. He saw Stoick look out of the corner of his eye to gaze at Gobber.

Hiccup approached his dad. "I was, but I left after a while-"

"You're not allowed out of the forge when the dragons are raiding…yet boy!" He countered.

Hiccup looked desperately up. "But I caught a Night Fury this time! I finally did! Let me take you to it, please?"

Stoick shook his head. He also lowered his voice so all the other villagers couldn't hear.

"Don't make up such nonsense. You can't do it yet, in a few years I might believe you. For now." He drew himself up to his fullest height, and spoke much louder.

"Every time you step outside, disaster falls. Can't you see I have bigger problems? Winter will be here soon, and I must find the means to feed the village!"

Hiccup eyed many of the Vikings around him.

"Between you and me, don't you think the village could do with a little less feeding dad?"

The crowd of Vikings muttered angry retorts, many comparing him to something small and insignificant, but Hiccup thought he heard a faint chuckle in the background from a certain blacksmith.

Stoick threw his fists down towards the ground.

"This ISN'T A JOKE! I'll deal with you later! Get back to your house." Stoick looked up, and motioned Gobber over.

He limped over as requested. "Make sure he gets there."

Gobber nodded.

"Now I've got to clean up all your mess, again." Stoick muttered. He walked off, his steps sending a chill up Hiccups spine with each he took. Most of the village followed him.

Gobber patted Hiccup gently on the head, "Come on lad."

He walked dejectedly back towards his house. One of the ones to escape damage from the raid.

"Quite the performance kid." Jeered Tuffnut, putting his arms out in front of him and indicating at Hiccup.

"I've honestly never seen anyone mess up that badly. You're going great kid. Nothing like some small entertainment, right guys?" Teased Snotlout. As he got the laughs from the twins and a chuckle from Fishlegs, he tripped Hiccup over.

He got back up, and was just about to turn around and face him…

"It's no use. Yeh'll get beaten up again. Come on, let's go." Supported Gobber.

He chanced a glance back behind him, and looked at Astrid. She was twisting her axe on the ground. Not even paying attention to the situation. As if none of it was worthy of her interest.

Feeling depressed once again, he slowly made his way back to his house.

"You know, I actually did hit one. I saw it fall down towards the forest." He mumbled, mainly talking to himself as he walked up the steps.

"Sure Hiccup." Gobber didn't sound legitimate. Hiccup could tell that he didn't believe him.

"He just doesn't listen, and when he seems like he actually is, he doesn't take anything of what I say in."

He heard a chuckle behind him so he turned and faced Gobber.

"What?!"

"And yeh are saying that yeh do?" He gave the most egotistical look.

All of Hiccup's body heat rushed to his face and ears. He imagined his face looking like it was a ripening tomato.

Gobber cackled.

Hiccup started walking back up the stairs briskly, till Gobber stopped him once he arrived at the door by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Look Hiccup," he started, his tone going more sincere, "Stoick just wants to keep yeh safe. He knows yeh ain't ready to tackle a Night Fury. Yeh need to be stronger, and trained. It's not that much about what yeh look like, well… okay it is a little. But mainly it's what's inside that he can't stand for the moment."

…

"Thank you, for summing that up." Hiccup spoke plainly.

"Hey!" he once again stopped Hiccup from going inside. "The point is, stop trying to be something yeh can't be till yeh 'are older. Yeh'll get ya training soon."

"But it's taking forever! I just want to be one of you guys already!" Hiccup had enough, rushed inside and shut the door rather hard.

Gobber felt a little guilty, he sighed and walked down to the rest of the village to join Stoick.

When Gobber went down to the where the destruction lay from Hiccups mess, he found no one there. So he gathered they were up in the Great Hall.

He limped his way up there, and pushed open the doors.

Everyone was gathered around the roaring fire in the middle. He made his way through, listening to Stoick rambling on about something.

"If we don't finish off these devils, they'll finish us off eventually! That's how it's going to be!" He spoke, as always in his deep commanding voice.

And he went on for a further few minutes, having at last convinced everyone to go on one last search for the dragons nest before winter came and froze them all.

"We leave at first light tomorrow morning. Have some rest today and food before we depart. Dismissed." He spoke at last, everyone nodded and headed out to go back to their homes. Or what was left of them.

"What about all the damage Stoick?" Gobber asked, curious. "Yeh gonna leave that till we get back?"

"Yes. I think it wise to get the search done as soon as possible. When we come back, we'll fix the rest. A number of Vikings will be staying here while we're gone." He replied, now taking a seat next to Gobber.

Gobber grabbed a mug of mead, and passed it to his friend. He accepted with a word of thanks and then Gobber got one for himself.

Gobber took a large swig, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and stood up. "Right then, I'll go pack my left socks."

Stoick laughed. "Gobber you haven't got a left foot. And you're not coming with us on the search. I need you here to stay in command."

The blacksmith sat back down, disgruntled. "Thanks for reminding me." He muttered. "Maybe it'll grow back one day."

The chief chuckled again, knowing full well the blacksmith was trying to cheer him up. Stoick took a swig of mead himself, and gazed into the fire.

"I've been thinking…"

"Oh no. EVERYONE!" Gobber shouted. "STOICK'S BEEN THINKING!" He began waving his arms around trying to get people's attention. Then he realised he was alone with Stoick in the hall.

Stoick burst out laughing. "Oh Gobber you never change!"

The blacksmith sat back down happily, taking another gulp of the fantastic drink.

"But seriously, I was going ask if you could train some new recruits while we're gone. We could over a week or two. If we come back."

"Yeh, not a problem." Gobber took another drink. Then got a thought. "Is that including yeh son?"

The chief tensed up straight away.

"No. You know he's too young." Though even Gobber thought that Stoick didn't look entirely convinced about that thought himself.

"Stoick… Yeh can't protect him forever."

The chief sighed, and took another drink.

"I know."

A few more minutes of silence passed.

"Do you think he's ready?"

"In all honesty, no. But, I do think he should start training now. He does need to bulk up, and learn to use weapons. The earlier he learns, the more prepared he is for the future." That was Gobber's honest opinion, and he knew Stoick would take it seriously.

"I just fear he'll get ripped to shreds before the first dragon even comes out of its cage."

"Oh yeh don't know that, he could suddenly be a natural."

"I doubt it. I just don't know what to do with him. He never listens, he has the attention span of a sparrow."

Gobber smiled. "Yeh know, he said almost the same thing to me earlier tonight. He said yeh never listen to him. I think it runs both ways."

The chief smiled slightly. "I suppose."

"Look Stoick," Gobber now turning very serious, "yeh can't stop him from trying. Look how trying stopping him has turned out. Let's just focus on preparing him. I know it may seem hopeless, but he will get out there again. For all we know he's probably out there now searching for the Night Fury that he thought he shot down."

Another minute of silence.

"You don't think he shot it down do you?" Stoick asked.

Gobber laughed. "Of course not. When I saw him running away from the Nightmare, I saw his bola launcher he made shattered. No way could he have done it."

"True. All right. I'll place him in training. Good luck teaching him, and the others. I want to hear how he goes when I come back." Stoick stood up, took one last swig of mead which emptied his mug.

"Find that retched nest." Gobber raised his glass, and drank it all in one too. He then stood up.

Stoick and Gobber hugged each other. "Good luck my friend. I'll watch yeh sail off tomorrow morning."

They released and shook hands, then departed the Great Hall.

**End of Chapter 3.**

**Bit longer chapter. I'm so excited to release the next chapter, it's gonna be cool and even longer!**

**If you're enjoying the story so far, please follow/favourite or review. **

**Hope everyone had/has a Merry Snoggletog (Christmas) AND a Happy New Year!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I just want to make clear, this is not a copy of the movie. It will differ and go a different way than the film did.**

**Chapter 4:**

Still relatively early, the morning mist hung delicately clinging to the gaps between trees. Keeping the atmosphere damp and chilly.

Hiccup had just started walking into the forest, hopeful of finding his Night Fury prize.

The mist made his face wet every few minutes, and he excessively wiped it with his sleeve. He hoped it would clear soon, or if he could find the dragon quickly so his clothes wouldn't soak too much.

He pulled out his notebook and opened to a page he had for previous hour been drawing a copy of a map, of Raven forest. Earlier, judging by the map, he thought he had nearly pinpointed where the dragon crash landed.

Unfortunately, where he had guessed was close to the centre of the forest. Which might take a fair amount of tracking to get to.

He started to realise that this was going to take a while, so his clothes were going to become wet unless the mist cleared quickly.

He decided to sit down and wait for the mist to go. He found a log to sit on, and sat.

He looked around, studying the forest. The trees' trunks were larger here than at the beginning. They went higher into the sky and produced a thicker canopy.

Though it was still quite easy to see. Due to the canopy it had darkened a fair bit, but it was still visible. Hiccup feared that when he went further, the canopy would make things nearly as dark as night.

He started fiddling with a stick on the ground, not really paying attention to what he was doing. He was listening to the sounds of the forest though too, almost enjoying it. There wasn't much sound, just the occasional bird or rustle of bush.

Over the next twenty minutes the mist seemed to gradually dissipate and move higher into the sky towards the sun.

Shame though that Hiccups clothes were still a fair bit wet. Especially his sleeves due to wiping his face repeatedly on them.

He pulled both his sleeves up, and some water dripped out. This exposed his dragon birthmark on the underside of his right wrist. But he didn't care, there was no one around to see it anyway.

He stood up and continued to walk further into the forest. Checking his map every once in a while. The map he had copied from listed certain hills and gullies at some points. So he knew where he was going.

The forest seemed to go on forever, the trees slowly seemed to get thicker and bigger.

What started to spook him though, was that he was starting to hear less and less sound. Either the density of the understory and canopy blocked out sound from animals, or perhaps there were no animals around here.

It was considerably darker in this part of the forest too. The terrain was becoming hillier. Still he kept going, determined to find the dragon.

After another minute of walking, he spotted something.

It was a break in the canopy. The sunlight was streaming through in just one section. At this point, Hiccup now could not hear a single sound.

Just before the sunlight was reaching the ground, there were several large rocks protruding out and just resting on the ground. He could not see what was behind it.

He reached inside his brown fur coat pocket for his dagger, and took it out. His heart started beating faster and faster.

As he drew nearer, he noticed a few black spotted things on the ground. He bent down, picked one up and examined it.

It was a metallic shiny black scale. There were scales on the ground there.

He drew closer, and closer. He bent down to stay behind a rock, uncertain but he had a hunch of what was behind.

He drew in a deep breath, and peered around the rock to see where the sunlight was streaming through onto the ground.

And there it was.

He stared and stared.

It was the Night Fury. He was certain of it.

There was the dragon. Metallic, shiny black. Covered in small black scales that blended in so well you couldn't tell one scale from another.

It was tangled in the bola he had launched at it.

It appeared to have two very long wings, that he was sure would be longer when they were fully stretched out. Even longer perhaps than a Monstrous Nightmare's. Its entire size was as an estimate a bit larger than a Deadly Nadder but slightly smaller than a Monstrous Nightmare.

It had a streamlined, symmetrical slender body. Designed for high speed and probably long distance flying. A rather long tail, with two fins jutting out that must help with flying just below its main wings. It also had two symmetrical fins right at the end that must control direction and balance.

Suddenly the dragon moved.

Hiccup jumped back in fright, having thought it was dead. The dragon began breathing every so often through its small nose on its face.

_Why wasn't it breathing before? Was it holding its breath or was it sleeping? _Hiccup thought to himself.

It had several ears that looked like they could move at the edge of his neck. It also head four paws which looked like they could tear apart any creature, especially with those sharp claws.

Hiccup glanced at his right wrist.

The Night Fury matched his dragon mark exactly.

"Wow. I-I, I did it."

This seemed to make the dragon open its eyes. They were a bright, acidic green colour. Lighter than the greenery of the forest.

It was staring right at him.

"It's a-a about t-tt time." He stuttered. Now approaching the dragon.

"Finally, the v-village will see me for w-what I can do."

The dragon wriggled and groaned, trying to break free. But the ropes were too strong. It gave up and just watched.

He raised his dagger, looking at the beast's chest, preparing to strike at where he thought its heart was. The dragon's breathing quickened.

_Come on you can do it, you can do it._

He couldn't help but have a quick glance at the dragons face.

Its eyes were boring into his own. Staring expectantly.

But as Hiccup watched, its eyes seemed to gradually widen. As if it was surprised that he hadn't killed it yet. Which was probably true, all the other Vikings would've killed it without hesitation by now.

Hiccup shut his eyes in frustration.

_Oh come on how can it be that difficult?! It's a helpless dragon! Just do it!_

The dragon was now holding its breath again, he couldn't hear it breathing.

Hiccup grunted, raised his dagger really high, but then just released it. It fell down to the ground and landed at his feet.

He knelt down to the ground, and covered his face in his hands.

"I can't do it. Whhhy can't I do it?!" He sobbed.

He cried at his weakness. He realised that he could not kill a dragon. He didn't have the heart to kill a living creature that was so helpless and hadn't done anything to him.

_It's not necessary. _He thought. _I just can't do it. It would be like killing a Viking._

He picked up his dagger, refusing to look at the helpless dragon.

He stood up, and turned around. He began to walk back, then he had another thought.

_I can't just leave the dragon tangled up to die a painful death. I gotta release it._

He sighed, and went back to the dragon. Still refusing to look at its face.

He knelt down again, and began cutting the ropes.

One, two, three ropes cut. One more and it'll be fr-

In the quickest amount of time before he had even registered what had happened, the dragon had leapt up, pushed Hiccup with its paw and had him pinned against the rock. His dagger went flying out of his hand. The dragon kept some weight on him, stopping him from moving.

The Night Fury snarled a little, baring its teeth. Its ears raised vertically upwards.

Hiccups heart began beating at the fastest it had ever gone in his life.

He realised this was finally it, he was pinned with no means of escape. The Night Fury stared right at him, concentrated on its prey.

Hiccup made no attempt to struggle, break free, move or harm the dragon. Not that he could have anyway.

He accepted his fate. He realised he couldn't kill a dragon, and now he was going to pay the price. He didn't mind too much, he didn't have any real friends that he would miss. Save Gobber.  
>He was practically looking at the mask of death itself. His Night Fury birthmark must mean he was destined to be killed by that dragon.<p>

But as he kept looking at the dragon, it made no attempt to kill, move or threaten. It just remained still, stopped snarling kept staring and kept him pinned.

Suddenly, remarkably, the dragon then released him. It took its paw off and took one step back. It stopped baring its teeth, but then quickly the teeth disappeared into a pink set of gums. It looked toothless. Then it shut its mouth.

Hiccup was so stunned he didn't move for a while. He stared at the Night Fury as if it had gone insane.

He finally gathered up the courage to move a fraction. He ever so slightly moved his arms a little.

The dragon's eyes instantly snapped to his arms to look at the movement. Then the Night Fury suddenly leapt and pinned Hiccup to the rock once again.

_It must be taunting me. Just do it already._

But this time, something shocked Hiccup even more.

The Night Fury was staring right at the dragon birthmark on his right arm. Its eyes had widened so much, as if it wasn't expecting to see it and was very surprised.

The dragon then glanced to Hiccups face, then back to the dragon mark. It repeated this twice, before its gaze stayed on the birthmark.

The Night Fury then pushed Hiccup harder into the rock, to restrict his movement. It started to hurt a bit. His back began to ache.

Then, with its other paw, it moved it slowly over to Hiccups right arm.

Suddenly, the Night Fury then touched his paw right onto the dragon birthmark.

The size of the dragons paw was far larger than Hiccups wrist, but because of the cylindrical shape of human arms, he could still just see his birthmark a little.

At first, nothing happened. Then the dragon closed its eyes.

Suddenly, to Hiccups immense surprise, the birthmark suddenly glowed a plain bright yellow. As if there was an intensely bright yellow fire inside his arm.

Almost a golden yellow colour. It did not change texture once.

Hiccup screamed in terror, but there was no pain. He struggled to break free, but it was useless. He could not move, the dragon had him pinned.

It did not hurt at all, as a matter of fact, Hiccup felt completely normal. Except the fact that he was terrified. The dragon wasn't really pressing hard though.

Then, the yellow colour started to dim, and get darker.

The dragon opened its eyes, and looked right into Hiccups. The Night Fury had a strange look on its face. Its mouth curved down a little bit, its eyes were a little shut, and its ears were flat against its neck. Was this the dragon's way of trying to look…sympathetic?

But that was impossible, dragons weren't intelligent or emotional beings.

He stopped screaming and trying to move, and just watched. Stunned, scared and shocked.

All of a sudden the birthmark went black, as if it was back to normal. Then it flashed to the same yellow it did before, then it glowed a steady dark purple. Hiccup thought it was same colour now as the Night Furies fire.

The Night Fury at last took his paw of Hiccups wrist.

Instantly, his birthmark changed to a dark blue colour. A little darker than the blue of Astrid's eyes. It glowed vibrantly.

"Come back to the forest soon. You'll find me."

That was all Hiccup could take before his vision turned black and he slid to the ground.

He began dreaming about standing at the top of a hill with five others, awaiting something. Having united the six, he could bring peace and justice to all, with the other five's help. He hoped.

"Hic…...cup."

"Hicc..up!"

"HICCUP!"

His eyes snapped open. He was met with eyes that were a fierce dark green.

"Wh-what?"

"Hiccup, what are you doing here?"

He looked around, noticing he was on the ground and someone large was leaning over him. He gazed up, and realised his Dad was looming there.

"Um, what am I doing here…" he repeated to himself.

He turned around.

The forest was right behind him, he was lying down at the edge of the forest.

"You're embarrassing me. Come on get up." Stoick demanded.

Hiccup stood up at once, he noticed several Vikings around all looking curious. Instinctively he brought his sleeve up to his hand on his right arm and shoved his hand in his pocket.

"What day is it? How long has it been since I last saw you?" Hiccup asked.

Stoick turned around and started walking quickly back towards the village.

Hiccup raced after him.

"Look I'm sorry. I feel asleep in the forest can you just tell me how long I was gone for?" He pleaded.

The chief turned around. "Son it's been only a few hours. It's around midday, now will you hurry up? I've got some news to tell you."

Stoick grabbed him by his shirt and walked quickly back to the village, he went inside Hiccups house shut the door then finally released him.

Hiccup placed his notebook and dagger on the bench, then quickly glanced at his right wrist. He noticed his Night Fury birthmark looking the same as always. It was just black.

_Did I really fall asleep in the forest? Was all that a dream or a hallucination? Or was it real…_

"I actually have to talk to you t-"

"I need to speak with you now, it's more important." Stoick interrupted.

Hiccup frowned. "Fine. Go on."

"I think it's time for you to begin your training."

Hiccup stared at his Dad.

_Oh you have got to be kidding me. Only now he is saying this?_

"What type of training?" Hiccup asked. Even though he pretty much knew what he was going to say.

"Dragon training. You need to bulk up and get experience with trying to take down a dragon. You'll start tomorrow morning in the arena with the other teenagers."

Stoick turned around, grabbed an axe he must have brought earlier into the house and dropped it into Hiccups arms.

"You'll need this."

He nearly dropped it, it was so heavy.

"Uhhh, Dad. I don't want to fight dragons."

He laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, you've always wanted to. You're going to kill a Night Fury one day, it's your destiny boy. This is where you start."

Hiccup was feeling terrible. This was exactly what he wanted yesterday and for all his life. Till now. After what he thinks he experienced in the forest, or in the dream if it was, he knows now he wouldn't have the guts, or the strength to kill one.

"Okay. Let me say I changed my mind. I can't kill dragons."

His dad turned around and began pacing the floor.

"But you will kill dragons."

Getting agitated now, Hiccup said, "No, I'm very extra sure that I won't."

Stoick stopped. He was beginning to get that angry look that meant he was going to get furious.

"It's time Hiccup! This is serious!"

He snatched the axe out of Hiccups hands.

"When you carry this, you carry all the village with you. It means you act like us, talk like us and think like us. No more of…" Stoick then gestured at Hiccup's body, "This."

Rolling his eyes again, Hiccup said, "You just gestured at all of me. I can't change all of me!"

"YES YOU CAN AND YOU WILL! When I come back, I expect to see you excelling at dragon training! If you're not, well, something unfortunate might happen." Stoick then tapped Hiccups notebook.

That notebook was more like a diary. He had written many ideas and plans for designs of his inventions like the Mangler in there. Also personal thoughts and things. It was a very personal book.

"You can't do that!" Hiccup grabbed his notebook and shoved it in his pocket, as if Stoick was about to snatch it and throw it in the fire. "Mum gave it to me. It's my only reminder that she existed!"

Stoick smiled, a cold threatening smirk. "She is not here anymore now is she? Well then, deal?"

Mortified, Hiccup didn't respond.

"DEAL?!" He barked, anger lurking in his voice.

"Deal." Hiccup mumbled, sombre. Now looking at the ground.

Stoick turned once again, grabbed a basket and slipped it around his shoulder.  
>"Good. I'm sure you'll excel. Train hard. I'll be back."<p>

He began walking towards the door. "Probably." The chief added.

Hiccup watched him go. "And I'll be here." Hiccup spoke.

Just as Stoick was leaving, Hiccup added, "Or not."

**End of Chapter 4.**

**Well, what do you think?**

**Leave a review, or favourite or follow if you liked it or want to share an opinion or idea!**

**:)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

For the rest of the day, half of it already gone, he spent watching around two thirds of Berks Vikings loading weapons, supplies and food onto the boats.

As it approached mid-afternoon, he realised he hadn't eaten since the day before. His stomach gave a growl at the thought, so he raced off to the Great Hall.

An hour later he was now stuffed with bread, lamb and chicken. He then decided to go to the forge to work on some weapons. Once there, there was a pile of weapons he hadn't fixed since the dragon raid due to him leaving to catch the Night Fury.

It took a fair amount of time to heat the fire up again to a welding level. Once done, he mended as many as he could before he began to feel tired.

He had halved his load of work for the day, with that done, and already beginning to get dark, with winter coming the days kept getting shorter, he headed back to his home.

He ate some leftover bread and chicken for dinner in the house before going to his room.

Hiccup lay in bed. Gazing at his ceiling.

The axe Stoick gave him sticking out of a nearby wall. Having been upset about his father's orders he rammed it into the wall.

There were so many things going through his head. Firstly he was thinking about what he'd have to do to get into Stoicks good spirits. That was no easy task.

In fact, the more he thought about that, the more he realised he could not fulfil that task. He did not think he could do it.

Secondly, he was thinking about that strange dream he had. The one before he woke up at the edge of the forest. Something about him standing next to five others at the top of some hill.

He remembered thinking in the dream that he managed to unite the six. But he remembered standing next to five. Was the six including him?

And what the heck was that about 'hoping to bring peace and justice to all?' And the part about 'awaiting for something?'

He merely chuckled at the randomness and the mysterious nature of dreams.

What dominated his thoughts though, was whether that encounter with the Night Fury was real or not. Was it a dream before he had that one?

But then again, what was he doing asleep at the edge of the forest? He knew he went in to try and find the dragon. He knew he shot it down. But maybe he fell asleep before he went in…

_This doesn't make any sense!_

Frustrated at his confusion, he tried to fall asleep.

He found it difficult, tossing and turning for at least an hour. Before he finally managed to sleep.

He awoke to some insistent knocking.

"Hey kid! Wake up!"

He opened his eyes. He looked around the room. Something seemed slightly odd.

He didn't feel tired at all. He took the covers off and sat up. It was morning, he just knew it, but how could he tell? He couldn't see outside there weren't any windows. The only light was from the candles of which had nearly burnt out.

He could smell the traces of chicken and bread from his dinner on the previous night. He could smell the early morning chill of air from outside.

"HEY! Hurry up and get down here to show me you're still there or I'll break the door down!"

Having forgotten about the person at the door, he jumped up. And sprinted to the stairs, raised his feet high enough avoid that devious shard of wood, and went down only to stop halfway.

_What the…_

He just realised something. He had remembered about that uplifted shard of wood _and_ had avoided it without even realising.

As he always remembered, he had always tripped on that piece of wood and fallen down the stairs. This was a first.

"Must be a lucky day." He whispered to himself.

He shoved his right hand into his pocket, and also checked to see if his birthmark was hidden by his sleeve. Then he went over to the door and opened it.

"It's about time!" Exclaimed Snotlout.

"Gobber sent me to tell you that dragon training begins in 10 minutes, but that was five minutes ago now! I'll see you down at the arena kid!"

He sped off, making sure to kick as much dirt as possible at him before he left.

_That's more like it. _Hiccup thought.

Hiccup wiped as much dirt as he could off himself, before he shut the door and ran towards the arena. As he ran, he saw the morning mist hanging around the village.

He found himself not puffing as much as he normally would after running such a distance.

All the other teens were gathered at the entrance, Gobber was there just about to lift up the gates when he noticed Hiccup.

"There yeh are, I was getting worried! Where's ya weapon Hiccup? Planning on wrestling the dragons?"

"Damn. I'll just go get it." He replied. Cursing himself mentally.

He ran back up the hill to his house, grabbed the axe out of the wall and sprinted back to the arena.

Now he was puffing quite a bit, that was a fair distance to run. But he still thought he would have been puffing a heck of a lot more normally.

"Welcome to dra- that was quick Hiccup!" Exclaimed Gobber, who just opened the gates and walked in. "As I was saying, welcome to dragon training."

Hiccup merely nodded in appreciation.

The teens walked in confidently. Holding their weapons. Fishlegs had a hammer, the twins had a spear each, Snotlout had a mace and Astrid had her axe.

"No turning back." He heard Astrid say.

Hiccup followed rather slowly, enjoying lurking behind everyone else. The axe in his hands feeling a little light. Not that heavy which was odd.

He did not want to fight a dragon after all.

"I'd like to get some serious burns. Like a graze across my chest." Spoke Tuffnut, excited.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like my shoulder or perhaps my lower back." Echoed in Ruffnut.

Astrid nodded, "Yeah, but it's only fun if you get a scar out of it. Like something you can keep as pride to show the battles you've been in."

Fishlegs gulped.

"Yeah no kidding right? Pain. Love it," said Hiccup sarcastically.

"Oh great why is he coming in?" Groaned Snotlout.

"Is he the dragon's food?" Tuffnut asked, beginning to look hopeful.

"No, he's one of yeh guys. He's gonna be training with us too." Spoke Gobber. "Rightio, let's get started!"

He brought everyone together into a circle, though the teens tried to keep their distance from Hiccup, as if he had some infectious disease.

"The recruit who does best, will the honour of killing his or her dragon in front of the entire village. Yeh efforts will be judged by the Elder, Gothi. There she is up there." Gobber indicated above the stands, to which we all looked and saw the old looking woman standing with her staff.

"This will be no easy task, as I'm sure yeh've seen from the previous teens who were in here last year. Now, spread out!" He instructed.

"Well," Called out Snotlout, "Hiccup already killed a Night Fury. Does that disqualify the runt?"

The teens all laughed. Except one. Gobber just replied with a shake of his head.

The new recruits all did as he said and spread out.

"I'll just run you through what dragons are in which enclosure." Gobber advised.

"Firstly," He approached the cage on the furthest right from the entrance, "The Deadly Nadder." He then moved to the next.

"The Hideous Zippleback." He indicated at the next enclosure.

"The Monstrous Nightmare." He then waved his peg hook prosthetic in the air. "This is the type of dragon that took my hand off."

Fishlegs shuddered.

"The Terrible Terror. A surprisingly lethal one."

Hiccup heard Tuffnut snort at this remark.

Gobber approached the last enclosure, "Now for the one I'll be introducing yeh all to today, the Gronckle." He moved his actual hand over to the lever.

"What! Whoa whoa I thought you were teaching us how to fight first?!" Cried Snotlout, clearly not expecting to be facing a dragon this early.

"Oh yes. We don't really fight Vikings much, just dragons. So it's only fit that I teach yeh how to fight them. After all, I believe in learning on the job."

He pulled the lever down, and the enclosure opened immediately.

Instantly, the dragon that has a remarkable resemblance to a flying boulder, burst forth.

Everyone scattered around, unsure of what the first move was.

"Today is about survival! If yeh get blasted…" The dragon had flown from one side of the arena to the other and crashed into the wall. "Well, ya might not survive!"

The dragon got up, started its quick beating wings similar to that of a dragonfly's, and began circling.

"Quick! What's the first thing yeh going to need?" Shouted Gobber.

Hiccup had no clue, but he guessed "A doctor?!"

"Plus five speed?" Called out Fishlegs.

"A shield." Stated Astrid, seemingly already knowing what to do.

"Yes, Shield. Go!" Called Gobber.

They ran towards the rack which had the shields placed on it, and each Viking picked one up.

"Hah, you're all so puny. You need your little shields to protect yourselves!"

Hiccup looked around. _Who said that? What was that voice? That wasn't Gobber or the teens._

He looked up to Gothi, she seemed to be watching with interest.

_Nothing out of the ordinary. Besides, she was a mute wasn't she?_

Hiccup picked up a shield, and ran behind the shield rack for cover.

"Get your hands off my shield!" The twins began fighting over a shield, yelling abuse at one another.

"Here! This will sort out that problem!" Came the voice again.

Suddenly the dragon fired a blast right between the twins that incinerated their shield they were fighting over. They were both blasted backwards by the force.

_Who is saying that?!_

"Tuffnut, Ruffnut, you're out!" Called Gobber.

"By the way, those shields are good for several things. Like noise! Make a fair bit to throw off a dragons aim." Advised the blacksmith.

Astrid, Snotlout & Fishlegs began circling around the dragon tapping their weapons against the shields. It made quite a few clangs and bangs.

The dragon began shaking and its eyes started to un-focus.

"Ahh stop it! I'm getting dizzy!"

Hiccup stopped, now having realised who was speaking. It was the dragon!

No one seemed to notice. How could they not hear the dragon talking? It was blatantly obvious…

Fishlegs had stopped walking too, but he was looking at Gobber answering a question that he asked while Hiccup wasn't paying attention.

"No six! I really don't –AH!" Screamed Fishlegs. As his shield was blasted out of his hand.

"Pay attention to your enemy! That should teach you!" Boomed the dragon, straight after firing a shot at the boy.

Fishlegs, petrified, ran off. Throwing his weapon blindly behind him.

"Fishlegs out." Called Gobber boredly.

"Hiccup get out of cover and practise!" Bellowed Gobber.

Hiccup refused, shaking his head and staying where he was. Trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He watched Snotlout try and hit on Astrid, who had not taken her eyes off the dragon for most of the event.

Snotlout lost concentration of the dragon and got blasted away.

"Snotlout, yeh're done!"

Hiccup finally decided to move out of cover, just as the dragon was approaching.

The dragon fired at Hiccup's shield, and it was blasted out of his hand, and began rolling around the arena. He dropped his axe too.

"Hiccup!" Gobber shouted. Hiccup began running after the shield as it was rolling away, being his only defence.

The dragon was chasing him.

He gave up on getting the shield, and collapsed against the wall of the arena.

He then remembered how the Night Fury stared at his birthmark.

"You will burn!" Thundered the Gronckle's voice.

It opened its mouth and was just about to fire, but Hiccup then pulled his sleeve down on his right arm and showed his mark to the dragon.

Instantly, the dragon's eyes shifted to the mark, and it stopped preparing a blast. Its eyes widened so much that he thought they could pop out of its head. The dragon stared for another second, just before Gobber suddenly grabbed the Gronckle with his hook and hand, and swung it around before throwing it back into its enclosure.

Hiccup covered his birthmark again so it couldn't be seen.

"What was that lad?" Asked Gobber at once. Who came walking over to him along with the other teens. "Why didn't it fire?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it ran out of shots?"

"Gronckles have six shots, it only used five." Mentioned Fishlegs.

Hiccup shrugged again. "I don't know, maybe it used one before it came out of the enclosure. You tell me! You guys clearly know more about them than I do!"

"Anyway…" began Gobber, just as Snotlout and Fishlegs looked like they were about to say something, "The important thing to remember, is that dragons will almost always, go for the kill."

Gobber picked Hiccup up and stood him on his two feet.

"Training resumes tomorrow morning. With the Deadly Nadder. See you all here on time then!" That was it for Gobber, before he turned around and limped out of the arena.

Hiccup left the arena too. He knew all the others were staring at him. He could feel their eyes on his back.

As he was leaving, he walked in a circle around the arena and stood just above the gates to the enclosures in the arena walls. He looked around and saw the teens going to the Great Hall, probably for breakfast. Hiccup however, did not feel hungry at all.

He could hear voices below in the enclosures. He leant down and made sure no one was watching, and listened.

"I'm telling you! I saw the Night's mark on that boy!"

"Are you certain?" Asked a lighter, sweeter voice. "Because if this is the one with the Night's mark, he must not be harmed."

"Positive." Said the first voice.

"How amazing the Viking is to have appeared in this tribe." Boomed a third, very deep voice. "The wisest always said he could be anywhere. And yet after all this time, here he finally is."

"I wonder if our local Night has found out about this." Wondered the second gentler voice.

"We'll find out if we ever escape or get released. But from now on, no harm must come to him. But we'll keep an eye on him, agreed?" Boomed the really deep voice.

"Agreed." Said all the voices. Even a few he didn't hear at first.

He heard footsteps behind him, Hiccup stood up and spun around to which he saw Gobber limping towards him.

"Hiccup, I wouldn't have let that dragon fire at yeh. I'm sorry if I was too hard on ya."

Hiccup was too confused and scared at why all this stuff was happening. He needed answers. He needed them now. After all this chat, he needed to talk to someone. He needed reassurance. If only his father were here to give some comfort. If he actually could.

"Okay…t-thanks. I…uh, gotta go." Hiccup turned around and sprinted away.

"Hiccup!"

Gobber's voice faded out the further he ran.

_What is happening to me? I swear I'm going mad!_

He ran to the only place he knew he'd be alone. The forest.

Now mid-morning, the mist had dissipated. The sun shone brightly.

The scents of the trees, animals and earth bombarded his nose. He ran and ran, till he felt he didn't want to run anymore.

He slowed down and began to walk again, till he found a large branch to sit on. His ears seemed to pick up significantly more sound than the last time he entered the forest. Especially the crackles & crunches of leaves and matter beneath his boots.

He could hear many more rustles of animals stalking prey in the bush, he could hear many more birds chirping and singing in the distance. He could also hear the light breeze of wind moving the leaves around.

Small droplets of water leaked out of his eyes. He was ashamed of himself. He was supposed to hate and kill dragons, he wasn't supposed to be able to hear them talking, even more strange as talking about him!

He buried his face in his hands.

Just then he noticed a faint blue light creeping between the gaps of his fingers. He withdrew his hands from his face and jumped in fright.

His Night Fury birthmark was glowing a fierce, darkish bright blue. Like the deep blue sea. Only the birthmark was glowing, nothing else. The entire dragon mark of the Night Fury was glowing.

"Hello there."

"AHH!" He looked up and yelled in terror.

He fell backwards then tried to scramble to his feet.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Please don't run away. I'm not going to hurt you."

In front of him, was the Night Fury. Somehow he had not heard the footsteps of the beast coming.

"Don't be frigh-"

"SHUT UP!" Hiccup yelled. "DRAGONS DON'T TALK! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME!"

He picked himself up and ran, only to crash into a tree and fall backwards onto his back.

His leg was stinging in pain, he looked down and saw a large splinter sticking out. Blood was dripping out of his leg.

Hiccup whimpered, shaking with fear and confusion. He shut his eyes tight shut, as if trying to fall asleep or wake himself up from the nightmare he was currently having.

Suddenly he felt a warm, sticky and fleshy something slide across and around his splinter in his leg.

The pain slowly seemed to ease, then he felt the splinter withdrawn.

"OWW!" He screamed. Still he kept his eyes shut. He wriggled a little then kept still.

Then the wet sticky slimy thing again. Right over his injury. It seemed to be easing the pain.

He sat up and opened his eyes.

The Night Fury was right in front of him, next to the tree. It had its tongue out and was licking his injury. Its eyes were focused on the wound. It looked like a large cat for a moment.

"Just hurry up and eat me already!" Hiccup squealed, turning his eyes towards the sky, "stop taunting me."

The licking stopped, and the dragon took several steps back on its four legs.

Hiccup saw the injury was nearly healed. There was only a little mark or scar there now. Then Hiccup noticed his birthmark was still glowing a bright blue.

The dragon then leant back, and sat on its hind legs. Its acidic green eyes wide open, and staring at him. Its ears raised.

Stunned, Hiccup wasn't sure what to say. He sat up and just stared back.

After a moment of silence, Hiccup broke it.

"Uhh… thank you?" It came out like a question.

The dragon then…smiled? Its mouth curved around its face on either side.

"You're welcome." Replied the Night Fury. Now Hiccup was really listening to the dragon. If he thought Stoick or the dragons earlier spoke in a deep voice, that was nothing compared to this.

This voice was much more powerful, authentic and seemed to have a fair share of authority in its voice. But its current tone spoke rather calmingly. It wasn't aggressive or intimidating.

For the first time, he actually saw the dragon move its mouth when it spoke. Hiccup realised though that it wasn't speaking Viking Norse language. Hiccup realised that for some reason he was probably the only one who could understand them.

"Wh-what are you?" Hiccup asked.

"What do you think I am?"

Hiccup cleared his throat. "Erm, obviously a dragon. A Night Fury."

The dragon nodded. It shook its head up and down. "Yes, I'm a dragon. A Night Fury is what you call my species right?"

Hiccup nodded. He then stood up and walked over to the log to sit down.

"Well I can say that my species in my culture are called Nights.'" The Night Fury explained. "Will you come with me? We should talk in a place where nothing could disturb us."

Hiccup looked around. "We're in the middle of the forest, no one comes around here."

"Yes they do. I've seen a couple, besides you. Please follow me."

The dragon leant back down, and stood on its four legs. It then turned around.

"Why?"

The dragon stopped. Turned and looked at him.

"Because there are many things that will need to be explained in a more enclosed space."

_What am I doing here? How do I know this is even real? Get a grip on yourself Hiccup! Since when did dragons tell you what to do?_

"No."

That was all Hiccup said, before he sprinted away back to the edge of the forest. He noticed his dragon symbol stayed a bright blue the entire way back to the edge of the forest.

He could hear the Night Fury running behind him, but it wasn't too close.

As soon as he reached the edge, he turned around and saw the dragon several metres away. It looked down at the ground, as if ashamed of itself. Its ears flat and pupils large.

"I'm sorry, I was to confronting. Should you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here. I'll help you with anything. I won't find you should you come back here next time. You should find me if you need me. I can explain a lot. I'm sorry. Look after yourself."

With that, the dragon turned around and ran back into the forest.

Hiccup noticed his dragon birthmark was bright blue when the Night Fury was close, but as it ran away, he noticed the brightness of the mark getting dimmer and dimmer.

Eventually the mark stopped glowing all together and went back to the normal black.

**End of Chapter 5.**

**Hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review or favourite/follow if you would like to.**

**:)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

As Hiccup left the forest, he was very unsure as what to do. So he headed to a place where there was always something to do.

He could hear the bangs and smashes of welding well before he reached the place.

Arriving at the forge, he met its main occupant.

"There yeh are." He spoke, taking the sword off the fire and placing it on the bench. "Look I'm sorry if I-"

"It's okay Gobber. I'm fine." Hiccup lied. He walked around the blacksmith and found his apron. He placed it on and started to gather some weapons to fix.

"All right. Yeh pile is here. Those weapons yeh're gathering we'll do tomorrow. If yeh have a question or anything, let me know." He indicated to a rather large pile of weapons that were damaged.

Hiccup groaned at the sight of the large pile. "Will I get time to make any weapons? I much prefer making them than fixing them."

"That depends on how quickly yeh finish that pile of work. If yeh don't start soon, I'll make your pile even higher." He threatened.

Once again, he took the threat seriously.

His first weapon he saw as he was preparing the forge with the bellows, as Gobber was already welding some on his pile in his forge, was a huge axe.

The wooden handle was quite short, but the head was rather large and solid. It was blunt by the look of it and needed sharpening.

That would take considerable effort to lift up and onto the bench for the sharpening wheel.

He had sharpened many axes before, but this was the largest one he'd seen.

He looked at the fire, after having heaved the bellows a fair amount. The coals were bright orange, and the heat was tremendous.

He let the bellows go, and walked over to the pile. He braced himself, shook his hands and cracked a knuckle or two.

Then he bent down, grasped the handle and pulled.

He could never have expected what had happened next.

Because he was so expecting it to weigh a tonne, like it looked, he pulled it so hard so he would be able to lift it up.

Instead, he pulled it up so fast that it went into the roof. He accidently released it as he was raising it because of the surprise, and now it stuck out of the ceiling.

_Why in the name of Odin is it so light?! It's like a feather!_

He reached up and pulled it out of the ceiling. Now holding it at arm level and examining it.

It looked solid, very heavy and strong. Hiccup simply could not understand why it was so light.

He placed it onto a bench.

"Hey Gobber?"

"Yeh?" He called out, not stopping his work.

"Why is this axe so light? It looks so heavy." Hiccup asked, hoping to get an answer. Maybe it was made from some different type of metal.

"Yeh, heavy isn't it? Thought it'd be a good one for ya to start off with. Always do the hardest first. Ain't that what I always say?" He replied. Still continuing his work.

"No, I said it was very light! Not heavy!" Hiccup said loudly, correcting him.

Gobber stopped his work and turned around to face him.

"What do yeh mean 'light?' It's not light at all! That's Stoicks axe as a matter of fact, he has that huge one. It's very heavy." He then went over to Hiccups pile and picked up the axe.

"See? Even I find it a bit heavy. Stoick likes heavy weapons. I prefer the lighter ones. It's not that heavy to me because I hold heavy weapons all day, hence why I leave the smaller ones to yeh. I thought I'd let yeh get a taste of what heavy weapons are like."

Hiccup was dumbfounded.

Gobber went back to his own pile and resumed working.

As if just to check if his muscles had changed in the past minute, he went back to the axe in question and picked it up with one hand.

He experimented and managed to balance it with two fingers at the head/neck joint. It felt light indeed.

_Okay. This is seriously getting weird. What is happening to me?_

He decided to ignore it for the moment, and started working.

Surprisingly, he got his work finished in a few hours at least without stopping. He was sweating, but he didn't feel that tired. Gobber on the other hand, looked exhausted.

"By Thor almighty! How on earth did yeh finish all that so fast?!" Squawked Gobber. Staring wide eyed at the new pile of shining, sharp weapons.

Hiccup didn't answer.

"Well, seeing that yeh've done that much today, which I wasn't expecting, I'll let ya off work for the rest of today and tomorrow. And you don't have to make any weapons either. Good work boy!" Cheered Gobber clapping him on the back as he exited the forge.

"Thanks." He muttered.

"Oh, don't forget dragon training in the morning! We're with the-"

"Deadly Nadder, I know. You said before!" Hiccup called back.

"Wait! One more thing. Meself, and the recruits are meeting in the Great Hall tonight after dinner to discuss tactics and learn about dragons. Make sure yeh're there!"

"Okay!" Hiccup yelled back.

Now in the afternoon, as Hiccup walked away, he looked up and saw some ominous looking clouds not far into the distance. A storm was brewing.

He walked and walked. Not knowing where to go. He walked through the village, into the Great Hall where he ate a little bit of food, and back again. And all the while, trying to decide if he should go back into the forest. At last he sat down in a chair at his house.

Eventually, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer.

_If the Night Fury could answer all these riddles, that would be great. Plus the dragon seemed quite nice and calm. It didn't seem threatening or aggressive apart from when I shot it down._

So Hiccup stood up from the armchair in his house, and went out the door.

He looked down and suddenly noticed his birthmark was glowing blue, but not as bright as it has been. He covered it as quickly as he could with his sleeve, then glanced towards the forest.

He could see a black blur amongst the top of the trees, and recognised it as the Night Fury.

It was looking right at him, and then it went through the canopy and disappeared.

He looked at his mark again, and noticed it was getting dimmer till it went out and back to normal.

_Maybe it glows whenever the Night Fury is near me._

"You okay kid?"

Hiccup jumped in surprise.

He looked in front of him, and saw a passing Viking gazing at him. It was Snotlout.

"Fine, thank you." Hiccup shut the door, and began walking towards the forest.

"You know, it's rude not to ask how I am going too, runt."

Hiccup could hear Snotlout's pace quickening to catch up with his own. He feared that Snotlout might beat him up again.

"Ahh, that's a good idea. How about a nice walk in the forest, just the two of us?" He taunted.

Hiccup stopped, suddenly realising that almost every time he went in the forest his birthmark went blue, so he couldn't go in with Snotlout there.

He turned around. "Actually I might just-"

Next minute Hiccup was on his butt. Clutching a bleeding nose.

"That's for being Hiccup." He said. Withdrawing his fist with a smug smirk on his face. Gods Hiccup really wanted to wipe that smile off his face one day.

Then he aimed a kick and was about to land it in his chest, except Hiccup caught his foot and pushed him.

Snotlout tumbled backwards and landed on his back.

Hiccup got to his feet, and so did Snotlout.

"Since when did you fight back?" He chortled.

Hiccup didn't answer.

Snotlout smiled. "I'll see you tonight."

Then the bully boy once again turned around, kicked some dirt at Hiccup before walking away.

Hiccup turned around once more and headed into the forest.

He remembered what the Night Fury said last time he saw him.

"I won't find you should you come back here next time. You should find me if you need me."

_How am I supposed to find it? _Hiccup thought. _I'm not exactly a tracker._

Then the answer came to him.

_Of course! My birthmark. It seems to light up really bright whenever it's near!_

He pulled his sleeve up to his elbow, and examined it.

It wasn't blue in the slightest, just completely normal, at black.

Hiccup started walking, glancing every few seconds or so to see if there was any change in colour.

Eventually, he noticed it turn a faint blue.

_That's good._

But as he kept walking in the same direction, it started to fade again.

"No no!" He said out aloud.

He walked back towards on the path where it was its brightest, which wasn't very bright.

He realised he'd have to turn. The dragon didn't want to be seen, so he knew now he needs to get off the main tracks.

So he took a right, and watched carefully. It faded again after a bit of time, no brighter.

He went back to the spot again, and took a left.

Slowly, it started to brighten. So he kept walking in the same direction, making an odd turn here or there.

Eventually it got so bright that-

"WHOA WHOA WHOA!"

He very nearly fell into a very large opening in the ground. He took several steps back and breathed in a sigh of relief.

He was so concentrated on looking at the dragon mark that he hadn't looked where he was going. It looked like a five metre drop into a cove. It had a lake in the middle but most of it was flat, very short grass. Like moss. The place looked like a meteor crater.

He got his notebook out and studied it. Noticing that this cove wasn't even on the map.

He observed the cove, and then noticed a familiar looking dragon at the other side of the place. It was lying down, and looked asleep.

_Great, now I have to figure out how to get down this retched wall._

Just as he put one foot on a rock ahead of him to go down the wall, his other foot slipped on the slippery moss ground underneath him, and he fell frontwards.

He yelled in a panic as he fell, but remarkably he landed on all fours, his hands and feet. What was more, it didn't hurt at all. As if falling down a five metre drop that was merely an inch.

Hiccup just knew the Night Fury would be awake and staring at him right about now. He could sense it probably not far behind him.

He slowly turned around, and there it was as expected.

The dragon had moved to perch on a boulder a fair distance away. Its eyes wide open, ears raised, and tail wagging a little.

Hiccup was unsure whether he should approach the dragon, or if the dragon should approach him.

Eventually, he didn't want to stand there forever, so he gradually walked over to the rock.

The Night Fury did similar. It slowly slid off the rock till it was walking on its paws towards him.

At a closer distance, they both stopped at the same time.

"Hello again."

"Hello there."

Hiccup half laughed at the timing of both phrases. They said a similar thing at the same time.

"What is your name?"

That was the first, most logical question Hiccup could think of.

The dragon tilted its head to the side. "Name? Is a name some sort of classification of dragon species?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No, it's just what Vikings call each other. Every person has a different one. It's a way of identification. Each person has a name unique to them and them only."

"Hmmm, interesting. Nothing like that exists in our nature. We call each other by our species. Like I would call you human, or viking. You would call me a Night, or a Night Fury." The Night Fury replied.

"That's silly, how would you tell one dragon from another?"

"We don't. We don't hold any secrets to any one dragon that another dragon cannot hear. That's against our code. Everything is shared." Answered the dragon.

"Well, can you call me by my name? I'm Hiccup Haddock. But just call me Hiccup." Hiccup said.

"Okay. Hiccup it is. Strange name though. And what shall you call me? I do not have a name. Unless you would be so generous as to grant me one?" Asked the Night.

Hiccup thought for a minute or two.

"You're sure you don't want to pick your own name?" Hiccup wanted to double check, just in case. Manners matter.

"Certain. I have no idea what to name myself."

"All right, you're a male right? So how about Toothless?"

"Yes I'm male. Toothless?" The Night Fury then bared its teeth. "What kind of name is that? It's not even true anyway. Why would you choose that?"

"Because the first time I saw you retract your teeth it gave me a hell of a surprise. And the image stayed in my mind." Replied Hiccup.

"Okay then. I'm happy with it." The Night Fury nodded, its tail wagging behind him. "Now then, let's talk about more serious matters. What questions have you got for me?"

Hiccup sighed, and sat down. "Oh, where to begin…" he muttered.

"Okay, how about this," Toothless started, "Seeing that you've probably got plenty of questions for me, can I ask you one myself before you begin? I only want to know one answer."

"Yeah sure. Go ahead."

"When you found me in the woods when I was all tied up, why didn't you kill me?"

_That was a similar question I was going to ask you. _Hiccup thought.

"Okay. Uhh… the reason I didn't, is that you seemed so helpless. You were all tied up from my bola launcher which shot you down, and you had never done any harm to me. It just didn't seem right to kill a living creature that hadn't done anything to harm me, and couldn't harm me tied up. It seemed unnecessary to kill just for the sake of killing."

"But I have attacked the village many, many times. I've probably killed lots of Vikings. Didn't that influence your thoughts?" Asked Toothless, sounding utterly curious.

"It did a little." Hiccup nodded. "But to me, in that moment, you looked as frightened as I was. As I have been most of my life. When I looked at you, so helpless, fragile, scared, I saw myself."

Toothless didn't make a sound. Or a movement.

At last, he said, "Hiccup." The dragon closed his eyes. "Thank you."

"Had any other Viking shot me down, they would have killed me without hesitation. Thank you very much. I owe you my life, even though you did almost kill me."

Hiccup felt his face go red. Unsure of what to say.

He had just been thanked by a dragon.

"What surprises me more," Toothless continued, "Is that is exactly why I didn't kill you either after you released me."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, interested.

"Oh yes. I was just about to leave you there and fly away, but then I saw your mark."

Now they were getting into waters that Hiccup wanted to cross. This was the information he wanted to receive.

"What is my mark? Why did you touch it? Why did it glow when you touched it? Why does it glow now? Why doesn't it hurt? Why-"

"Slow down slow down. I can't answer everything at once." Ushered Toothless.

Both of them took a deep breath.

"The mark on your right arm is Night's mark. In other words my species mark. As you call it a Night Fury mark. Rumours, speculations & prophecies have spread among dragons about a Viking legend being born with a Night birthmark. The wisest said that he could have been born anywhere. And now of all dragons to find him, I have."

Hiccup was just about to interrupt, but Toothless stopped him. "Please don't interrupt, I have a lot more to explain." Hiccup just nodded in reply.

"The wisest were the oldest living dragons of our time. They were three dragons. One was a Bewilderbeast and the other two were Night Furies. They have long since passed, and their prediction was altered, modified and changed over the course of time through rumours and speculation as I said before. Nevertheless, the basic principle remained."

"I however, know the original statement. 'Six humans shall be born within several thousand years, each with a different dragon mark. They all will unite and follow the path to peace and justice of their time. One Viking will be the leader and will be destined to be the wisest of them all. The one born with the Night's mark is the leader and will be aided by a Night of whom the Viking will pick up some strengths, traits & characteristics from. He shall gather the other five, and together they will conquer the corruption and evil of their time.'"

"I know the original statement, unlike all the other dragons, because, the two Night Furies who were the wisest at the time with the Bewilderbeast with that prediction, were my great grandparents."

"I met them once before they passed, only once. And they told me this." Toothless finished.

Hiccup was totally at a loss.

Then he burst out laughing.

"Are you seriously saying that _I _am a Viking leader, who is supposed to gather up five people of whom I am to lead and help to conquer something? I think you've got the wrong Viking here." He chuckled.

Toothless closed his eyes.

"I know, this is going to be hard to accept." The dragon muttered.

"ACCEPT?!" Hiccup exploded. "Who said I was going to agree to this?! What if I don't want anything to do with this? Don't I get a say? I won't be forced to do this!"

Toothless said nothing.

"I don't want any characteristics of a Night Fury! What am I going to start sprouting wings and a tail soon? I don't want any of this! I just want to go back to being an average normal Viking!"

Toothless still said nothing.

Hiccup stopped yelling, and started to relax.

"I'm sorr-

"Don't even think about apologising." The dragon interrupted.

"This is completely out of your hands, you didn't have a say. If it's anyone's fault, its mine. Maybe I shouldn't have told you this."

Toothless's ears went down, and his eyelids drooped a little. He looked miserable.

"I'm sorry Hiccup."

Hiccup now walked over to the Night Fury.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have talked like that. I'm not normally like that. I'm sorry too. It's just quite a lot of information to digest." Hiccup tried to comfort.

A crackle of thunder was heard, and signalled the rain. Large, freezing droplets came pelting down from the heavens above. Just as Hiccup realised how dark it was, it was nearly nightfall.

"Quick! There's a cave over here!" Toothless growled, as if angry at the rain.

He ran over to a cave just beneath the entrance of which Hiccup came through. It was quite large, and a fair amount of space for Toothless to move around in.

Hiccup was freezing. And it was very dark in the cave, he could barely see.

"I better g-get b-back to the v-village to warm up." Hiccup said, his teeth vibrating and chattering.

"Nonsense. Stay still." Commanded Toothless.

Suddenly, a purple blast of fire shot out from Toothless's mouth and ignited a pile of wood. Then Toothless turned and faced Hiccup, opened his mouth and blew.

But no fire came out, instead, very hot air was blown onto Hiccup, and what a comfort it was. It warmed him up a fair bit, but his clothes were still damp and cold.

"I need to take these off." Hiccup said.

"Take what off?" The dragon asked, now looking at him.

"My clothes."

"Your what?"

"Oh." Hiccup chuckled. "These layers of clothing, similar to skin. We Vikings wear them to keep warm."

"Right." Said Toothless. Thought not entirely convincingly.

Hiccup removed his brown fur coat, then he took out his notebook, which was luckily dry due to having a protective fur coat around it, and placed it on the ground. Then he took off his shirt, and placed it and the fur coat next to the fire. With the notebook a further distance away.

"Good grief. Is that what human skin actually looks like?" Toothless muttered, staring at Hiccups bare chest.

"Hey, do you mind! And yes it is, we all look like this underneath." Hiccup folded his arms in front of his chest, self-conscious.

He sat down next to the fire, now taking off his boots and placing them near the fire too. And enjoying keeping his feet warm close to the fire's heat.

"Is that it?" Toothless asked.

"Is what it?"

"Is that all your, what did you call them, cloths?"

"Clothes, and no. I keep my pants on."

"Why?" Toothless asked. Sounding curious. "Aren't you cold in those areas?

Hiccup blushed. "Of course I am. But I'm not going to take off my pants. I got to have some privacy."

"Have some what?"

Hiccup sighed. "Oh for Thors sake I'm not going to explain the entire way of how humans work!"

"Who is Th- Oh sorry, never mind." Toothless looked at the fire and then lay down. Flattening his body against the rock, and his face not far from the fire.

There was a silence for a while.

"Humans are stupid."

Hiccup laughed.

"We are not. Shut up you nosy dragon."

Toothless moved his tail around the cave till he banged it against the Vikings head playfully. "I will not be insulted. Thank you very much."

"Oh and you expect yourself to get away with calling my species stupid and batting me on the head with a piece of fabric?" Taunted Hiccup.

"How dare you call my tail fins a-"

Hiccup had leapt up and threw himself at the dragon, scratching everywhere he could on the dragon's sides.

"Ahh stop it! No it- ahh! Tickles! Stop!"

Toothless rolled onto his back, and Hiccup still managed to cling on, suddenly he noticed something odd, but then Toothless hooked him in his pants with his paw claw and tossed him off gently.

"Hang on a second. My mark! It glowed purple when I touched you!" Hiccup got to his feet again.

"Oh yes, I forgot to say that." Toothless rolled back onto his belly and lay down, as Hiccup went back over to the fire and sat down next to it.

"Those colours when I put my paw onto your mark were just the glowing lights of activation. Yellow was meaning it was activating, when it flashed yellow that meant it was done. Then it turned purple, which is the colour your mark will turn now every time you touch me or I touch you. Also as I'm sure you know by now, it turns blue when I'm near you, the brighter the blue, the closer I am.

"By activating it, that meant many Night characteristics are going to transfer to you. Your mark is unlocking the traits over time. Steadily and slowly so you can adapt. Example being your running speed and stamina, you will be able to run faster, further and for longer than you could prior. Your strength will increase. You will get stronger, though it won't show. You will be stronger, you already are, dragon strength is in your muscles. But it won't show it.

"Your eye sight, sense of smell, hearing and sense of awareness will increase. You'll be able to see at night far better than you could. You'll be able to smell lots of things you wouldn't normally. Your hearing will be greater and you'll be able to distinguish sounds more efficiently. Your sense of awareness will improve too, you'll be aware of things you wouldn't normally notice. You'll be able to become very stealthy if you chose too.

"One last thing I want to make clear that you might have already guessed. No. You are not turning into a Night. You are not turning into a dragon. Because all of these things are not physically noticeable by other Vikings. In other words, your appearance will not change, and these changes are not reverse able, as far as I am aware."

Hiccup could barely believe this. It sounded like a dream come true.

"That sounds…amazing. It's just, I hope I don't change. I still want to be me. I don't want so much power that I end up changing myself."

Toothless spoke up, "I understand. I'm sure you won't. And don't worry, we have plenty of time. Night's live for hundreds of years. And I'm only young, as are you, plus with your mark now activated, you may end up living longer than a normal Viking."

Hiccup nodded, but then had another thought.

"Hang on a moment, what was this thing about bringing peace and justice, conquer corruption and evil? I don't know of any corruption or evil..."

Toothless breathed out a long breath, Hiccups guessed it was a sigh.

"Hiccup. This world is far larger than you know. This is the other side of the scale. There is a fair amount to explain and fair amount we need to find out before we even consider starting."

Hiccup nodded in understanding. "All right. Don't tell me now. I don't want to know. I'm not ready for anything massive like this. I want to focus on my life here on Berk for the moment."

"Of course, I understand." Responded Toothless.

Hiccup stood up and put his clothes back on and placed his notebook in his pocket in his fur coat. "Anyway, I have really got to go, I need to get to the Great Hall to eat and talk with the others unless they've already gone. I'll come back tomorrow, I promise."

Toothless stood up too. "Sure, I understand. Here, I'll give you a lift."

"A wha-"

Toothless pushed his head quickly between Hiccups legs, so he slid down his neck and sat just before his wings.

"Ow, this is very uncomfortable." Stated Hiccup, matter-of-factly. Hiccup noticed his birthmark went purple.

"Hold on." Cautioned the dragon.

Hiccup gripped onto whatever he could, his arms wound around the dragons neck and he leant forward.

Toothless leapt out of the cave then took off into the now drizzling rain.

It was a very painful experience, not one he wanted to do again. He couldn't see a thing, barely hang on and it was painful on his crotch.

Gladly Toothless landed less than 15 seconds after he took off. He landed in the forest but just before the edge. Hiccup slid off him, clutching between his thighs. His birthmark turned blue. It shone in the moonlight.

"I'm not doing that again anytime soon. Unless I have a saddle or something." Moaned Hiccup, slowly getting to his feet.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Are those your vulnerable parts there?" If Hiccup wasn't in pain or getting cold because of the drizzling rain, he would have blushed to his core.

"Whats left of them." He muttered.

"I'm sorry."

Hiccup nodded, turned around and began limping away. "I better go, cya later Toothless."

"Wait…"

Hiccup turned around, and Toothless was right in front of him.

Toothless just closed his eyes, seemingly to try and find the right words.

Hiccup instead, closed his eyes, took one hand, and placed it gently on Toothless's snout.

Even though he couldn't see it, he knew his birthmark was bright purple. A wave of trust and friendship spread through them both like lightning. A connection had been made. Neither of them had had really good friends for a very long time.

Hiccup removed his hand and walked towards Toothless, and placed his head against Toothless's.

They liked each other already. They were going to be the best of friends. Soulmates.

They were situated like that for over a minute, till Hiccup was just getting too cold.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Looking forward to it." Replied the Night Fury. "Take care of yourself."

"You too."

With that, the dragon took off into the air, and disappeared into the night. Hiccup sped towards the village. Using the dimming blue light as a torch before it went out.

Finally he arrived at the Great Hall, as soon as he opened the doors, the other teens were standing there.

They went past him without even looking as if he didn't exist and walked down the steps together, except Hiccup noticed Astrid wasn't with them.

Hiccup walked inside and saw a few Vikings around some tables. Astrid was around one table, talking with Gobber.

Hiccup approached, and took a plate of chicken and vegetables.

"Where have yeh been?" Wailed Gobber, as he finished his conversation with Astrid and she left the hall.

"I..uh, fell asleep."

Gobber relaxed, and sat down opposite him.

"Well, I don't blame ya. After all that work yeh did for me today. All I was saying to the recruits were some suggested tactics and advice. We also had a few discussions on what went wrong and right. By the way…" Gobber went over to the other table he was at previously, picked up a book and brought it over.

"This is the dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of. I recommend yeh give it a read. It might help ya. I'm off for the night. See you at training early in the morning."

"See you." Replied Hiccup.

Gobber got up and left.

Hiccup could hear each footstep he took and each breath he in and ex-haled. He was starting to notice his hearing improvements.

He could also hear the conversations some other Vikings were having at other tables around him.

Then he breathed in through his nose and nearly died of delight as he smelt the chicken below.

He devoured it.

Once done, he brought the book over to him.

He read a few pages, some parts were interesting. Like how it explained dragons habitat, food/diet and breeding patterns. But then there was a section for each dragon on the best and quickest ways to kill it.

Some were disturbing, others were disgusting. He found one phrase in particular that was on almost every single page. 'Kill on sight.'

Then he found the page he was looking for. Night Fury.

_Speed unknown. Size unknown. _Hiccup read it to himself. _The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you._

_Well, I found one. And befriended it, what do you say to that? Stupid book._

**End of Chapter 6.**

**Nice long chapter for ya! Don't forget if you want to, review, favourite or follow! **

**Important notice: I'm going away for two weeks starting in less than 5 hours at the time I uploaded this. I may not be able to update anywhere near as often as I have been since I started.**

**But I might be able to update at random times. I'll write as much as I can, and upload when I can. **

**Till I see you next time, happy holidays & HAPPY NEW YEAR! **

**:)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

That night Hiccup walked back to his house, prepared the fire with some dry wood from inside, and lit the fire after a fair amount of effort. He took his wet clothes off and hung them by the fire.

He grabbed a couple of new candles from a cupboard, lit them and took them upstairs.

Hiccup then realised that his eyesight was getting better, and he could see easier with the candle's help. He supposed that many of the dragon traits hadn't fully come into effect yet.

He went over to his wardrobe and took out some other clothes. Placed them on, then blew out the candles and got into bed. Hoping that he wouldn't need the candles in the morning due to his eyesight hopefully having improved.

He slept well, and when he woke up, he took a deep breathe in through his nose.

The scents of the morning chilly mist and the odour of the burning wood downstairs filled his nose. While the sound of the crackling fire, the outside birds and his own breathing penetrated his ears.

He hopped out of bed and went downstairs. Once again avoiding the nasty shard of wood without realising. The fire was nearly out, and his clothes were dry. He took his current ones off and placed the older ones back on. He raced upstairs to put the blue clothes back into the wardrobe. He preferred his green clothes over his other blue ones.

Not feeling hungry like the previous morning, he grabbed another axe that was hanging on a wall that his dad liked to place there and went out the door.

The sun was just about to pop over the horizon as Hiccup looked out to sea. It was a beautiful dawn. Bright orange streaks of light shone onto the clouds from the horizon.

He walked slowly down to the arena, taking his time.

By the time he got there, he saw Gobber coming out of the arena which had changed dramatically since he last saw it. It was filled with large, tall fences throughout. It looked like a maze.

He also could smell a strong scent of fish and chicken. He looked and saw a large pile of said meats just above the chains of the arena.

"Well yeh are here early." Gobber greeted. "What brings the future Night Fury killer here at this time?"

"Oh, I just wanted to get here a bit earlier than usual. I was late the first time, so I wanted to make up for it." He answered.

Gobber nodded, "tell yeh what, can ya help me with something seeing that yeh are here early?"

Hiccup nodded, eager for something to do.

"Could ya feed the devils for me? I need to go back up to the forge to get my hammer in case the Nadder misbehaves. I left it there. All yeh have to do is divide and place this pile of food," Gobber indicated at the fish and chicken pile, "into each enclosure. Just open each one a fraction, and drop the food into each one from above the arena, so you can't get hurt."

Hiccup was nervous.

"Are you sure that's safe? What if one gets out? What if I open it too much by mistake?" He cautioned, unsure.

Gobber waved it off, throwing his hands through the air as if fighting off invisible birds. "Ah, yeh'll be fine. I trust yeh. I'll be back within half an hour and the other teens will be coming with me. Oh and don't forget to shut the main arena gate first."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay."

The blacksmith smiled. "Thanks. Good lad."

He turned around and began limping away.

Nervous and afraid something would go wrong, Hiccup decided to do it anyway. He placed his axe (which felt extremely light), down on the ground. He took the pile of food into fifths and placed them near the edge of each enclosure above the gates.

Then he noticed that there were levers and pulley systems above each enclosure. So he didn't have to go into the arena at all.

He listened first to see if he could hear the dragons talking. But there was nothing, just silence.

He shrugged to himself and bent down by one of the levers and pulled it halfway, which in Hiccups opinion should open the enclosure only a little.

Instead, the enclosure opened completely.

Immediately, a dragon sped out, roaring with fury. It was the Nadder. It turned and looked at the maze like structure, and sprinted through it.

It led right to the arena entrance, which Hiccup had forgotten to close.

"Hey! No, STOP!" He called desperately.

The Nadder spun around, and flung spikes in all directions from its whip-like, spiked tail. Some hitting the fences and others flying into the sky, even a few narrowly missing Hiccup.

The dragon's eyes looked up at the sight of the Viking.

"Screw you. I'm leav-"

The dragon stopped mid-sentence. Its voice was the lighter, sweeter tone he heard earlier.

"You… are you, are you the one with Night's mark?"

Hiccup gulped, but slowly, he nodded. He drew his sleeve back and revealed it.

The Nadder's eyes widened so much, and immediately it ran through the maze again till it stood outside its enclosure, where it faced Hiccup, it raised its wings and bowed its head to the ground.

"Oh my. Sir I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have shot my spines at you. Please forgive me!"

Stunned once again, Hiccup didn't know what to say.

"I'll go back into my enclosure. I won't come out ever again, I'm sorry."

Regaining his composure, Hiccup said, "Hey, calm down. It's okay. Look, the recruits today will be coming to train on you. All I would want you to do today is to act natural. Don't try and protect me or anything. I'm so sorry about this, but I'll promise you something. If you stay here today, tonight I'll set you free."

The Nadder raised its head and jumped up and down, shaking the nearby ground and it felt as if there were a mini earthquake in progress. It looked like an excited puppy.

"Yes sir! I understand. But what about my friends? They are locked up too?" Asked the Nadder.

Hiccup was formulating a treacherous plan in his head. He was going to do something he could be banished for, but he realised which side he was on now. The dragons. There were still many suspicions he had, but he'd talk to his friend Toothless about that later.

"I don't know, I might be able to, I'm not sure. I'll try and free them if I can tonight. We'll see. Here's some food." Hiccup answered.

He pushed the Nadders share of food down into the enclosure, as the dragon raced in.

"Yes sir. Thank you very much." It said gratefully.

"You're welcome, but please don't call me sir. Just call me Hiccup, and tell that to the other dragons too."

"Yes si-I mean Hiccup." The Nadder replied.

Eventually Hiccup opened all the cages, and pushed the food in for each. None of the other dragons came out or said anything. He presumed they had heard his conversation with the Nadder.

Not long after, Gobber returned with the other recruits and their weapons.

"Oh there's the punching sheep. Finally here early eh kid?" Spoke Snotlout.

Ignoring him, Hiccup looked around and saw Gothi, the village elder and one of the highly skilled healers, walking quickly down to the arena stands.

Hiccup gazed at her for a moment, never having been close or talked with her once in his life, and he could have sworn she winked at him just then.

"All right recruits. Today we're with the Deadly Nadder. Go down into the arena, now!" Instructed Gobber.

They all made their way as fast as possible to the open gate of the arena, which Hiccup had earlier forgotten to close. They all picked up a shield at the entrance this time, along with their weapons in their other hands.

Gobber opened the enclosure from above, and the Nadder burst out.

"Today… is all about, ATTACK!"

The Nadder flew up and stood on top of one of the fences, searching for the Vikings.

"Nadders are quick, and light on their feet."

"Damn right we are." The Nadder boasted.

The Nadder spotted Fishlegs first, and he shrieked in fear as the Nadder shot some spines at him.

"Yeh job is to be quicker, and lighter!" Echoed Gobber's voice around the arena.

Fishlegs pulled the spines out of his shield and ran around the walls, trying to find a good place to seek shelter.

"You know Gobber, I'm starting to question whether your methods of teaching are safe!" Squealed Fishlegs.

His teacher ignored him.

"Just look for the Nadders blind spot. It has a very vulnerable one. See if yeh can find it and use it to yeh advantage."

The twins were running around the arena, through the passageways repeatedly, trying to find the dragon.

Suddenly they turned a corner and came face to face with it. Only the dragon didn't see them.

They had found the blind spot.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut stayed in front and a bit below the dragons head, where they discovered the dragon could not see them.

Ruffnut suddenly smelt something horrible, it seemed to be coming from her brother. Hiccup swore he could smell something a little foul too from where he stood at the other side of the arena.

"Oh, do you ever bathe?!" Ruffnut asked, disgusted.

"Where are you?! I can hear you!" Screeched the Nadder.

"If you don't like it, then why don't you just get your own blind spot?" Tuffnut shoved his sister away.

Fuming she came back pushed him back, resulting in yet another fight between them.

"How about I give you one?!" She threatened. All of a sudden, they turned at the sound of the dragon squawking in surprise.

"There you both are!"

They ran around the corner just before the dragon fired at them.

"Dragons may have a blind spot, but they don't have a deaf spot." Gobber chuckled.

Hiccup just walked around the arena, watching and listening to the others trying to outsmart it.

He walked around till he noticed Astrid and Snotlout creeping down, attempting to hide and perhaps launch a sneaky attack on the dragon.

"Come out come out wherever you are." Hiccup heard the dragon taunting nearby.

"Hiccup!" Astrid whispered. "Get down!" She had her fierce warrior look on her face that meant she was not to be trifled with at this time. She already looked angry and disappointed, as if Hiccup had already fallen short of her expectations.

"Yeah runt, get down!" Echoed in Snotlout.

Hiccup did as he was told, and crouched down.

Just then, Astrid rolled on her front passing a corridor. The dragon must be in there.

Snotlout followed swiftly, Hiccup however, turned around and went the opposite way.

"Where you going? Idiot!" he heard Astrid's whispered rage behind him as he got out of sight of the two teens.

Hiccup turned a few corners and made sure no one could see him due to the huge fences.

Then he came face to face with the Nadder suddenly. But the Nadder turned its head to look at him, so he wasn't in its blind spot.

The dragon didn't react, it just stared at him for a moment.

"Should I chase you to act natural? Or go for the others sir- I mean, Hiccup?" The dragon whispered.

"Chase me, I'll lead you to them." He replied.

Hiccup ran, and the dragon roared behind him before running after him.

He turned a corner and saw Astrid and Snotlout. Hiccup suddenly then took a sharp turn and the dragon didn't follow, it went after Astrid and Snotlout.

Hiccup heard Snotlout in the distance say, "Watch out babe I'll take care of this." Followed by an annoyed, "Hey!" By Astrid.

The Deadly Nadder chuckled, "Nice try."

"The sun was in my eyes Astrid!" _So Snotlout missed._ Hiccup thought.

Hiccup heard more chasing sounds and some words exchanged over the next minute or so, then suddenly the wall closest to him got rammed on the other side and the fence began to fall.

He bolted away from it, only to turn around and see Astrid jump from the top screaming, "HICCUP!" And landed on top of him.

"Ooohh, love on the battlefield…" Jeered Tuffnut from the sidelines. "I'm pretty sure she can and will do better than that filth." Added in Ruffnut.

Hiccup pushed her off with more force than he intended, but her axe was stuck in his shield and she had a solid grip on it. So she fell back onto him again.

She pushed herself off him, having released the axe and she made a grunt of disgust. Now standing, he pulled her axe out of the shield as Hiccup stood up too.

Suddenly huge footsteps were heard as Hiccup saw the Nadder running at them.

Hiccup turned around and bolted to the sidelines, just as Astrid swiftly brought her axe onto the side of the dragons face.

He heard it wince in pain, and it scurried away to the other side of the arena.

"Well done Astrid." Commented Gobber from above. Just as Hiccup dropped his axe to the ground.

The girl in question spun around to look at Hiccup.

"Why did you run away from the dragon?" She asked, looking very aggressive. Now approaching him and holding her axe tightly.

He didn't answer, till she got really close and he mumbled, "I wanted to let you get it."

"Is this some sort of joke to you? You don't run away from the enemy! You stand and fight. Our parents war is about to become our own, don't you realise soon you will have to confront dragons you pathetic boy?!" She thundered.

She then put her axe to Hiccups throat. "Figure out which side you're on! Instead you're running away and coming back all the time, only to run away again. Why don't you just run away for good?! You'd do the village a favour!"

"Don't speak like that to the Viking with Night's mark!" Roared the Deadly Nadder, who came charging over to them at once.

Gobber leapt through the arena's chains and tackled the dragon to the ground before anyone else could react. Then he took it back into its enclosure and shut the gate.

"That is enough out of yeh Astrid! I won't have yeh talking to my apprentice like that! What has he ever done to yeh?"

Astrid turned around and stormed off. Muttering under her breath.

"Now you've upset my girlfriend. You little piece of dragon dung!" Spat Snotlout at Hiccup, as he ran out of the arena after Astrid.

Fishlegs and the twins said nothing, and just casually walked out.

Gobber put his hand on Hiccups shoulder.

"Come with-"

"NO!" Cried Hiccup, tears leaking out of his eyes. "I think I've had enough of Vikings today!"

He ran out of the arena as fast as he could, but then suddenly he heard something behind him.

Gothi was there, she had tapped her staff on the ground hard which got his attention.

Hiccup, unsure but willing to give it a shot, walked over to her.

Gothi turned around and signalled him to follow.

He did so, and she headed up the hill, towards the forest. Hiccup looked around them, there was nobody in sight.

She entered the forest, and he still followed.

Hiccup checked his birthmark to see if it was glowing. It wasn't, yet.

Still Gothi kept walking, using her staff as a walking stick. Her grey hair billowing behind her. Then Hiccup saw it, through his sleeve his birthmark turned a dim blue.

Suddenly Gothi stopped, and turned around. He nearly walked into her.

Then she grabbed his right arm with surprising speed and strength, and pulled his sleeve back.

She stared at the dimly glowing dragon mark. But her face showed no sign of surprise, shock or otherwise. It remained completely plain and her expression unreadable.

"Uhhh…"

She looked up at him, and smiled.

"Hiccup, you shall travel far and wide. Find the other five, and together the six will unite over time. Go to Myrka country to start, there you will find two of them. Years may pass, but do not be dissuaded of your goal.

"Alliances shall be forged, and enemies will be found and created. Substantial changes may happen, and learning to adjust will endure. You will leave Berk, but do not forget it. Remember what I have said. I have limited time left, but I've told you what's necessary. Farewell."

At a loss of what to do or say, Hiccup just watched her walk around him, and back the way they came into Raven forest.

He stood still, trying to digest what he had just been told by an old woman who was to the village it seemed a mute. Then he heard frustrated voices in the distance and the sound of an axe hitting trees.

He followed the sound and saw from behind a tree, a young woman with bright golden hair running and throwing her axe onto the trees.

"You want some of this, Gronckle?" She pegged the axe and it smashed into a tree. Sending splinters flying.

She yanked it out, and, "How about you, Nadder?" And she threw it again.

"Or even you, Hiccup!" Astrid threw it once again and it smacked really hard into the tree.

Horrible, saddened thoughts returned to him, and he realised that they were all right.

_What use am I to them? I just make things worse. What future do I have here?_

Tears leaking from his eyes once again, he used his Night mark to find Toothless. He wanted his company.

He was in the cove once again, but this time he looked like he was trying to catch a fish. He was staring at the water with the utmost concentration, not moving a single inch. Then he suddenly lunged into the water, and came out with half a fish dangling out of his mouth.

"Well done."

Toothless snapped his head up and his ears plates rose and twisted as he turned to see Hiccup standing at the top, watching.

The Night Fury swallowed the fish and called out, "Thank you. You have no idea how long it took me to catch that one." His deep, booming voice reverberating around the cove's walls.

Hiccup ran and jumped off the five-metre cliff and landed on the ground on his feet perfectly.

Toothless approached, "What's the matter? You don't look so good." He rushed over, his ears raised right up, and a sorrowful look on his face.

Hiccup told him everything Gothi said, and what happened in the arena.

Then, he finished off with, "I want to leave Berk tonight."

**End of Chapter 7.**

**Hope it was okay. Please leave a review to share your opinion and/or favourite/follow if you choose to.**

**Sorry for the delay. Just been busy in holidays and stuff, and still am!**

**Don't worry, there's plenty more on the way. But it's gonna take time!**

**Thanks so much for the reviews so far! It's been great!**

**See ya! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

Toothless just nodded in reply, words did not need to be said at this point in time.

"I just don't understand." Hiccup sobbed, "Why does everyone hate me so much? I mean, I know I did mess up a bit, but doesn't everyone make mistakes or it seriously just me?"

Toothless brought Hiccup close to his chest and he wound his tail around him.

"Everyone makes mistakes Hiccup. It's just they don't seem to be able to see past them to observe the goodness in people." The Night Fury tried to assure.

He nodded into the dragons hide as his tears kept coming out; he hugged Toothless, crying gently into the soft, warm impermeable scales.

"I tried so hard. Over the years I have tried so desperately to impress dad and the villagers. But isn't that the point? The fact that I have tried? Isn't trying and striving to achieve your goal what matters in this world?"

The Night Fury began rumbling deeply and softly; it seemed like an affectionate purring.

"Yes. I think it is. Trying is what matters, not necessarily whether you succeed or fail, the most important thing is to have tried."

Hiccup started to relax and release the dragon, "Yeah."

"So," Toothless sat up on his hind legs, a mischievous grin on his face and a couple of ears twitching.

"Lets remove the sombre atmosphere shall we?"

Suddenly he retracted his teeth into his gums, and the next thing Hiccup knew was that he was being thrown at high speed and crashed into the water in the lake.

He swam up to the surface, only to witness the dragon rolling around on the ground laughing his head off.

"You little devil." Muttered Hiccup, trying to force down a smile from reaching his lips. Just that moment while Toothless was rolling around on the ground, Hiccup got an idea.

He breathed in as much air as he could, and dived under the surface again.

There, he stayed and swam around underneath the surface for a bit, holding his breath.

Eventually, as he was about to surface, he saw a black blur suddenly flying over the surface and dived into the water, evidently looking for him.

Hiccup swam back up to the surface, and breathed in and began laughing as Toothless surfaced too with a horrified look on his face.

"You scared me, I thought you drowned!" He said. As he followed the laughing Hiccup to the shore.

Hiccup collapsed onto the shore, lay down and looked at the sky. Now around midday, the sun shone strongly onto the two laying on the shore of the lake in the cove, warming them up from the cool temperature of the water.

Toothless walked over and did the same next to him, rolling onto his back with his paws in the air.

They stayed there for several minutes, before Hiccup asked a question.

"Why do dragons raid Berk?"

Toothless gulped in a breath before answering.

"They don't do it for themselves. They have to. You see Hiccup, there is this monstrous queen dragon that lives inside the dragons nest in the volcano. It's the size of a mountain and it demands food every few months."

"Its so big and got such a temper that no dragon has the wits to stand up against it. Any dragon who refuses to give its food to the queen is killed or eaten. But the worst part of it is that the queen seems to possess a strength that other dragons do not."

"It has the ability to call dragons within a certain area. It makes a sort of buzzing, irritating sound that affects every dragon. No dragon can escape the call once you're in its range."

Hiccup shuddered. "That sounds awful. But what about you? I never saw a Night Fury stealing food?"

"Night's are not required to steal food. We are used to lead and provide backup during the raids. We're the only dragons who aren't forced to find food for it. That night when you shot me down, that shook off the queen's control of me. And I daresay that capturing dragons is an effective way to shake off its control. As that happened with the dragons that are enclosed in the arena in your village."

"The reason they still shoot fire and act as they always do is to defend themselves, I saw from the forest you and other Vikings fighting the dragons, they only do so to defend themselves."

This was all starting to make sense to Hiccup. This was the reason behind the dragon attacks. He knew they'd be an explanation.

"So, if this queen is the reason behind the war between Vikings and dragons, is our objective to destroy the queen? Is that what the wisest meant by conquering corruption and evil?" Hiccup asked.

"Certainly a large portion of it, yes. The queen would probably count for half of the evil, but you see Hiccup, in other parts of the world corruption and evil are taking place too. Just in a similar nature. And in those areas, such monster queens do not exist, but the dragons do, and they can be used by humans for many different things. Not necessarily good."

Hiccup sighed, sat up and watched the water in the lake rippling gently.

"After all this time I've wanted to stay on Berk to work as hard as I could to do my best. Now after all this has happened, I've realised the only place I want to be is wherever you are. No matter where."

Silence.

After a while, he heard the dragon start rumbling deeply like purring of a giant cat, and he said, "Thank you, and I say the same to you now, my friend. You're my only friend too. I've had others in the past, but my past is a tragic one and it's probably best not to uncover it at this point in time."

Hiccup nodded in understanding, "I understand."

Suddenly Hiccups stomach made a rather loud noise.

"Are you hungry?" Questioned the dragon, looking curiously at Hiccups chest.

"Possibly just a little." He answered. His face and ears going red in embarrassment.

Toothless picked himself up and stood on his four paws. "Well why didn't you say so?"

"Well," Hiccup muttered, sarcasm dripping in his tone, "Technically I did, my stomach said so."

The dragon walked over to Hiccup, and suddenly began making retching noises, as if he was choking. Then, quickly the dragon coughed up a half eaten fish, covered in slime and dropped it onto Hiccups lap.

"Ugh! Toothless I can't eat that! That's not funny!" Spoke a disgusted Hiccup.

"Why not, its fresh? I caught it this morning remember?" Toothless argued, looked confused. It was a perfect fish. He would eat it again if Hiccup wasn't hungry. What was the problem with him?

"Toothless!" Hiccup stood up, and the fish fell off his lap and onto the green mossy ground below. "It's raw, humans can't eat raw food, and it doesn't suit our stomach! Secondly, it's already been half digested by you and its covered in slime! It looks horrible."

"All right all right if you feel that strongly about it." Replied the dragon, who quickly woofed it down again happily.

"Ugh," Hiccup complained, "Now I don't feel like eating at all."

The Night Fury turned to face him, tilted his head and gave him the best dragon impersonation that clearly said, 'Dude, really?'

"Okay okay! I'll try and see if there is any left in the lake." He began walking to the lake, when Toothless jumped in front of him.

"That won't be necessary. I'll be back in a jiffy."

Without a second to waste, the dragon of the night leapt into the air, and disappeared within a few seconds from view.

Hiccup now instead went over to a nearby rock and took out his notebook. Then he realised he needed something to write with. The best stuff to write with was charcoal on the burnt end of a small stick.

He needed to return to the village for five things tonight and he numbered in order in his mind, seeing that he couldn't write them down into his notebook.

Firstly, he needed to design, and make a saddle that would be large and comfortable enough to ride Toothless if he was going to be riding long distances over a fair amount of time. He also needed to make sure that it camouflaged into his hide, so he could disappear in the night and perhaps even in the daylight sky. Along with that thought he also realised one day he might try to make, buy or find some black clothes.

Secondly, once that was done, he needed to find the best-suited weapon he could for himself to take with him on his travels once he left Berk in case he ran into trouble.

Thirdly, he needed to write and drop off letters to Astrid, Gobber and if Stoick should return, he could return to learn the knowledge of what his son has done.

Fourthly, he wanted to personally go and find Gothi and thank her for her words and see if there was anything else she could tell him.

Lastly, as he promised, the last thing he would do is release the captured dragons into the wild. Free them from their cages so they could be free to roam the skies once more. Not just the Nadder, but also all of them.

Just at that moment, Toothless arrived back with several fish in his mouth, some still alive and wriggling and attempting to get out of his mouth.

"Thank you very much Toothless." Hiccup thanked him.

Toothless nodded.

After that, the young Viking then walked around the cove, collecting wood. Sticks, logs and branches for a fire.

Once he had gathered enough and placed it all into a pile, he looked at Toothless.

"Hey bud, would you mind?"

Toothless looked down at him after apparently staring at a sparrow in the distance, and glanced towards the pile of wood that Hiccup was gesturing at, and spat a quick purple blast of fire accurately from where he was sitting and it ignited at once.

"Thanks."

Hiccup grabbed another stick this time, plunged it into one of the fish and held it over the fire.

While it was cooking, Hiccup told him the plan for the night and evening.

By the time he was done the fish was cooked and Hiccup happily ate it. Icelandic cod always tasted nice at this time of year.

"So, you're sure you're all right for me to ride you? You will let me make a saddle-"

Toothless growled, "If you ask me that one more time, I've already told you, yes!"

"Okay okay!"

Now with the cooked fish neatly in Hiccups stomach, and a perfectly charred stick to write with from the fire, he knew it was time to design the saddle he would tonight make in secret.

It took some time, nearly till nightfall but he managed to make the best design he possibly could and it would be makeable in the amount of time he had. However, the most unfortunate thing he has realised is that this is the only time he will be able to make it.

Once he had left Berk, he will not be able to return to fix it or make another. Unless he managed to do so in secret. So he hoped he would find a friendly tribe out there of which may be able to help him one day.

Nevertheless, the design was done, the letters were written, soon would be the time to act. They planned to leave Berk straight after they freed the captured dragons.

"It's nearly nightfall." Called out Toothless, jumping down from the top of the cove and landing with a thundering crash onto the ground.

"Yes, we'll leave once the night has turned black, we don't want to be seen bud. Remember as I said, stay beyond Berk in the borders of the forest. And meet me in the dragon arena when you see the first dragon coming out. If you don't see me-"

"Come and find you." The Night finished for him, nodding.

"Yeah. But try and stay hidden, please."

The pair of them then ate the leftovers of the fish for a late dinner, and by that time it was dead of night. Hiccup having inherited Night Fury eyesight; he could see everything almost so easily it was hard to tell if it was daytime.

"Ok, lets go."

At once, the Night bounded over to him and Hiccup hopped onto his back to his regret, due to it being uncomfortable, and he soared up into the air.

The ride was painful, but exhilarating. He loved the feel of the wind and the extreme sense of freedom that flying seems to create.

Once the Night arrived at the edge of the forest once again, Hiccup slipped off and landed on the ground.

"Oh, I can't wait to use a saddle." He said, the pain now gradually subsiding.

"I bet. Ok good luck Hiccup, I'll be waiting for you." The Night rubbed his head affectionately against him.

"Thanks buddy, see you."

And with that, armed with a notebook which consisted of several pages of designs for a saddle, and a few pages to be ripped out and given to three people, he ran into Berk.

With his new speed and agility, he ran very quickly and stealthily into the village. Hiding behind the odd house or two, listening for sounds of Vikings and scents of them.

As far as he was aware, nobody was around. He approached the forge, and Gobber was not present. He would have gone to bed for the night.

He entered the forge, put on his apron and looked around for cloths and materials to build a saddle from.

The more he looked, the more he noticed how much Gobber had spent in so many years in this forge. It had many clothes, different types of materials for making them, sewing stuff, wool and more. As well as all the weapons and equipment for welding, building and sharpening.

He got the required materials and set to work, though he kept his ears operating in case he heard a Viking approaching.

It took him a little longer than expected, but he completed the saddle. Though unfortunately Hiccup could not find any black material, so he had no choice but to make it with a brown, shoe-like colour.

With that done, he put the straps for the saddle over his head and wore it around his body as one would with a bow and arrow.

He now looked around the armoury, which was connected to the forge, and tried to decide what type of weapon he wanted to use most.

He found himself not really wanting any of them; no weapon really suited his interests. Though even if he weren't presented with stacks of weapons he still wouldn't be sure of which.

He took a chance and picked a small sized sword with a sheath that he could buckle to his belt.

Once done, he headed back to his home, gathered some clothes and placed them into a basket. He also placed his letter to his dad Stoick on the bench there.

Now leaving his home with the basket and saddle over his shoulders, he looked around the house and said, "Goodbye."

With that done, he headed to Astrid's house, and he slid the note under the door. Then he went to Gobbers house and did the same with his note.

With two things left, he went to look for Gothi. He wasn't exactly sure where she lived, but he guessed she lived in a place that was at the back of the village at the top of the hill close to the forest. His own house and Stoick's house were also close to this area, but Gothi's was at the direct top.

He approached the door and was just about to knock, but then the door opened before he did so and Gothi stood there with a smile on her face.

"Hello Hiccup." She said, "please don't linger, there are guards around tonight so best to go when you can."

"Okay. Gothi, I just wanted to say thank you for the advice you gave me, I will follow it. Might I ask why and how you know about all this stuff?"

She sighed and blinked rather slowly, "I'm afraid some mysteries are best to remain unsolved my dear. All I can tell you is to head west. Myrka is quite a distance; no doubt you won't be reaching that place for a while. After what you achieve in Myrka, I do not know what you should do then, that is for you and the two others you find in Myrka with the dragon marks to decide."

"Best things to remember Hiccup before you go, is to know that trust is not found or something that should be easily created. Trust is earned. Do not trust anyone, except whomsoever is worthy of it. Gather the five, and unite the six. Here, take this, it was mine once, I hope it comes in handy. Good luck."

She took something that was packaged out of her pocket. It appeared rather small. He took it and placed it into his own pocket.

"Thank you very much. I'll try. I hope I see you again."

She smiled once more, "Let's see what the future brings." Hiccup took his cue and left.

Now the last thing he was going to do was about to be completed.

He strolled down towards the arena, keeping a weary eye out for any guards that Gothi spoke of.

He saw a couple but managed to avoid them quite easily with his stealth skills.

Once into the arena, he whispered towards one enclosure in particular.

"Hey Nadder, it's me. I'm going to let you and all the dragons out now. Can you please tell them to try and remain quiet? I do not want to attract attention."

He heard a scramble from inside, then, "Sure."

Hiccup heard the Nadder whispering to the other dragons.

"Okay, ready." The Nadder spoke.

He opened the Nadder enclosure first, and said dragon came out rather slowly. It walked over to the arena gates, and waited.

Then Hiccup heard a whoosh sound, noticed his Night mark turn blue, and he turned around and was once again surprised, as Toothless stood right there.

"Hello Night." The Nadder made a bow to the dragon. "Pleasure to know you have activated the Viking's mark."

"Good evening Spikes." Replied the Night politely, making a casual nod. "Indeed, I have. It is in full effect, most of the effects have already finished. I suspect one more day and his Night's traits shall be completed."

During the time the Deadly Nadder in which species in dragon culture appears to be called Spikes, was talking to Toothless, Hiccup had released all the dragons, including three he hadn't trained on.

"Hail the Viking with Night's mark and his accompanying Night." Chanted the Monstrous Nightmare. Making a bow that was joined in by all the other dragons.

Hiccup went red in the face and ears, "Look, thank you, but I'm no leader worthy of all this attention. I really don't think its necessary."

"And that, is exactly why you are worthy of it." Spoke the Gronckle.

"Anyway…" Began Hiccup, hoping to change the subject, "You are all freed and are welcome to do whatever you choose. We must leave, I don't want any of us to be seen by any guards."

"Yes, true." Admitted Toothless, suddenly looking up and around everywhere, his ears twitching in all directions for sounds of any sort.

"Okay, let's go." Spoke the Terrible Terror, in a stranger higher pitched dragon voice.

"Wait a second Toothless, I need to secure the saddle to you," said Hiccup.

Hiccup walked over to the Night Fury, and started strapping in the saddle. His birthmark flashing between blue and purple.

"Sir, we were wondering," Spoke the left one of the dragon heads of the Hideous Zippleback, "If we could possibly come with you." Said the other one. "All of us." Both heads then said nervously at the same time.

"Yes, we were all curious about that." Added in Spikes, as if suddenly remembering.

As he worked, Hiccup gave it a thought. He didn't want to be distracted too much from his tasks. But then again some help at times could be useful, as could extra firepower. Developing friends in dragons would also be beneficial.

On the other hand, he didn't want them risking their lives for him at any time though. He wanted to work alone when situations like that came. He didn't want any external help.

"Maybe. But it'd have its risks. What do you think bud?" Hiccup would like to hear the Night's opinion.

"Well," began the Night Fury, "I don't really think it's that much of a good idea. No offense guys, its just that the more friends we have with us, the more dangerous our situation will be. We could be flying into a hostile area and I don't want any of you getting killed. It's just-"

"No no…" Interrupted the Nadder, shaking its head. "We understand completely. You're quite right. We'll leave you both to it."

"Yes, we shall. But I tell you what, we'll just be hanging around random islands in this archipelago. If you ever would need help, just come find us." Spoke the Monstrous Nightmare.

The Terrible Terror suddenly flew up and down on the spot. "Yes yes!" It squeaked. "Great idea Sticky Flame! Any help should you need it, just send word or come and find us around these islands!"

The saddle was now securely strapped to the Night, Hiccup jumped aboard.

"All right, thank you. That's settled. We may meet again someday. Goodbye!" Hiccup cheered, but kept his noise to a minimum.

The dragons took one last bow, before they all flapped their wings and took off.

"Wait a moment bud." Hiccup took the package that Gothi gave him out of his pocket, unwrapped it and stuffed the wrapping into another pocket.

She had given him a compass. A well designed and by the looks of it, an accurate one. It had all directions on it. North, South, East and West. And a few in-between.

Hiccup took one last glance behind him as he directed Toothless to walk to the edge of the arena gates to face west and prepared to take off.

Hiccup placed his compass into his pocket in his coat so it was secure. Then he looked behind him once more.

"Farewell… Berk. Goodbye Gobber. I shall return, one day."

Hiccup turned back around, facing the dark night, and raging sea. He took a deep breath and spoke confidently, "My home is now behind me. The world, is our destination. Buddy, head west and we shall make our way to Myrka country!" Cried Hiccup.

Immediately, coupled with Toothless sounding a quiet roar of confirmation, he leapt into the air, and they were off on an adventure.

The next morning on Berk…

Stoick-The-Vast was relieved to finally be home. His village. And it looked as it always did, sturdy.

Tough time he had endured these past moons. He and his fellow Vikings had failed once again in finding the dragons nest. Unfortunately they had lost several Vikings too.

As Stoick's ship docked into port, many other Vikings came down to help them unload and see what had happened to them.

Spitelout, Snotlout's father, was the first to come down. He and the others witnessed the boat, or what was left of it, that was carrying the Vikings back.

It was a sombre atmosphere, the boat was half destroyed and the people were solemn. Its mast burnt out, several bits of wood sticking jagged from the deck, and it leaned to the side and moved slowly.

Spitelout grabbed several Vikings and pulled them up the ramp and onto the docking wharf.

As Stoick himself finally came off, he gave Spitelout a pat on the back for thanks.

Then Stoick saw the Viking he was looking for, his best friend, Gobber. Who looked unhappy.

"I trust yeh found the nest at least?" The yellow moustached Viking asked, looking slightly hopeful.

Stoick shook his head. "Not even close. What's the matter? Anything happen while I was gone?" The Chief asked.

Before Gobber could answer, some other Vikings came rushing down the wharf, all looking cheerful.

"Congratulations Stoick! Everyone is so relieved!" One of them said, walking straight past them and heading down to the boat to help.

"Out with the weak, and in with the strong, right?" Cheered another, following the first.

"No one will miss that old nuisance!" Said a third.

"The village is thinking of throwing a party to celebrate later." Finally the last one spoke. Before he too left to go down to the boat.

Stoick, utterly confused, turned to Gobber. "What are they talking about? What's my son done?!"

Gobber heaved a heavy sigh, "Come on Stoick. Come with me to the Great Hall. I need to show yeh something."

"NO! TELL ME NOW!" The chief thundered, demanding to know what his son had done. God's knew, he would punish him if he had destroyed something else.

"All right, here yeh go. We discovered these notes this morning. This one was delivered to the Astrid Hofferson girl." Gobber succumbed to Stoick's rage, and handed him one note from his pocket.

"This one was to me." He handed Stoick another.

"And this," Gobber pulled a last one out, "was for yeh. The whole village has read all of them."

Stoick began reading the first one.

_Astrid,_

_I just wanted to thank you. Those words you spoke to me shook me out of a trance that I had been living in here on Berk since my mother disappeared. You taught me an important lesson, when you said, "Figure out which side you're on."_

_I have realised that I do not choose Berk's side, which is your own. I haven't known anything but disappointment and disgust from you, so I have no interest in taking the Vikings side. Though the following may sound impossible, I assure you its true. I have found a friend in a dragon, and finally have the friendship I have always been so desperately craving._

_I have no place among Berk, a land full of tough Vikings and determined personalities. I am different than all of you, so I thank you for making me realise that._

_I have left Berk long before you read this, and I intend to try to make this world a safer, better place. I wish you the best._

_By the way, it was I who made your axe._

_Enjoy your life._

_The Runt, Hiccup._

Stoick finished that letter, and began reading the next.

_Dear Gobber,_

_You have been my only friend, mentor and person I could at least somewhat relate to in this tribe. You have been there to support me sometimes, and I will personally never forget it. You have taught me loads of invaluable information that will and has been put to great use already._

_Our funny remarks, times we shared and humorous moments will never be forgotten. I'm sorry I had to leave, but it was for the best. I do not belong on Berk, and I refuse to kill a dragon._

_Thank you once again for all the advice and skill you've taught me in making and fixing weapons. You've always been a friend, a mentor, a person I've looked up to and someone who I'd be excited to show my work to._

_Thank you once again, we may meet one day once more._

_By the way, if my Dad Stoick isn't back yet, you can read my note I left for him in my house._

_Farewell._

_Your former apprentice, Hiccup._

The chief of the tribe finished Gobber's letter, and now turned to his own.

_Father,_

_If you're reading this dad, you've returned from your nest hunt. How did it go? Find the dragons nest? On your 10,000th attempt? Judging by your usual manner, you've probably already read the other two letters I sent to Gobber and Astrid. _

_First of all, I'm sorry I could not fulfil your expectations. I did not complete dragon training, and I will never kill a Night Fury. Or any dragon if I can avoid it. This must upset you, but I assure you it pleases me._

_I have left Berk. I do not belong here, and probably never will. You might try and find me, but I assure you it will be unwise. You won't find me. But then again listening to your son isn't your strong point is it?_

_I have discovered that I cannot kill dragons. I've had a major change in my life, and found something that I treasure greatly._

_Passion and friendship. Not just my mother while I knew her for the extremely short time, but also Gobber. Most importantly of all, I have found friendship in a dragon that shares the same interests I do._

_They are not the crazy and rampaging beasts I and the whole of Berk thought they were. There is something much larger at work here. Something evil and mysterious that resides inside the dragons nest. This controls the dragons and forces them to do things against their will._

_But anyway, that's one of my many problems to solve now._

_Though you always believed I was destined to kill a Night Fury due to my birthmark, I have found it to be quite the opposite. I was never meant to kill the Night Fury._

_I have known nothing but neglect, disappointment and negativity from all Vikings of Berk with the exception of Gobber sometimes. I never liked the way you treated me._

_Anyway, enough writing. One day, I will return to Berk, once my work is complete, or perhaps for some other reason._

_By the way, I have taken my notebook with me. You shall never take it away from me._

_From your son, Hiccup Haddock._

_PS: I may have released the caged dragons from the arena._

He finished reading at last, and crumpled the notes hard and tight into his fist.

**End of Chapter 8.**

**Finally another chapter done! Was it acceptable? Please leave a review to share an opinion, I like hearing feedback. If you like this story, please consider favouriting or following!**

**Till next time FanFictioners! Thanks so much for the feedback so far! I read every review!**

**Hope everyone is enjoying the New Year! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Now in the early morning, Hiccup was still atop of Toothless. They were flying across the sea. It was still raging below them, but the wind had dropped a fair amount, which seemed to make flying easier.

The sky was a clear, crystal blue. A stunning reflection was present in the wild ocean below. There were some clouds ahead, but not thick or dark ones, just some thin wispy clouds which would cover the sunlight from reaching sea level.  
>Toothless seemed to be flying at the same height of the oncoming clouds, so hopefully it will conceal them from the ground below if they went a little higher.<p>

The air certainly was tough up here. Being rather hard to breathe sometimes. But due to the sheer speed of the Night's flight, the wind seemed to suffice for enough air to breathe properly.

Hiccup was wondering what Astrid and Gobber would be thinking right about now back on Berk. Surely they would have read his notes by now. He was pretty sure, if not certain Astrid wouldn't give a damn of what he had written.

Gobber on the other hand Hiccup thought might be upset a little. He was sure the blacksmith enjoyed his company sometimes, and he was certain it was vice versa.

He was curious if his father had made it back from the search for the dragons nest yet. He wasn't sure at all, even if he had survived. Being curious as he was, he thought how his dad would react to the note.

_He certainly wouldn't be happy. _Hiccup thought. _He'd be disappointed, but I wonder if he'd go looking for me. _

_Probably not. But he could easily send out word for my capture to other Viking tribes and trading routes._

On that thought Hiccup thought a bit more cautiously. As he started passing through the clouds on Toothless's back, he realised he may have to have a different identity.

There was no way he would change his first name. He has grown rather fond of it, but he thought he probably should have a different last name.

He was pretty sure Haddock would probably be at least known by some other Viking tribes out there, due to it being in Berks history of chieftains for a substantial length of time.

Thinking that he'll think about that later, he pulled out Gothi's compass and checked that they were still heading west. He noticed once again before seeing the compass, and often enjoyed looking at it, his Night mark glowing purple. He often would pull down his sleeve just for the sake of looking at it.

According to the compass, they had a current course of southwest.

He pulled a little on the straps of the saddle in the correct direction, and Toothless obliged and corrected the course till they were flying a direct west.

Once done he put his compass back into his pocket and stared out at the clouds below him.

He loved this. The remarkable sense of freedom up here in the sky. Barely even feeling the cold, he just felt free. Like he had the world at his fingertips.

He felt like he could touch any part of the world at any time he wanted to, he could reach out and explore. It was an exhilarating feeling. Also a comfortable saddle helps too.

"You okay? You haven't talked in a while." Spoke the dragon below Hiccup. Sounding curious, but not wanting to disturb him sort of tone.

"Yeah. Just enjoying the ride. By the way, anytime if you're hungry, tired or anything, we'll find a place to stop so you can rest your wings and I can stretch." Hiccup replied, patting the Night fondly on his neck.

"Sure. I will, thanks." He replied, not losing his concentration once whilst talking and flying at the same time.

"I wonder how far this Myrka is…" The dragon thought out aloud.

"Quite a distance, apparently. Gothi said we wouldn't be reaching the place for a while. I hope it's not that far."

Toothless snorted.

"It doesn't matter how far. We Night's can fly for ages. I mean like several days without stopping. As long as we get food, rest and water, we'll be there in no time." He assured.

"Well," Hiccup gave the dragon a little scratch behind the ears, earning a deep purr, "let's hope so bud."

They flew on, and on. Clouds appeared and disappeared, winds gusted and relented. With Hiccup checking his compass every so often and keeping to the correct course.

_It had to be nearly midday by now at least_, Hiccup thought. Looking up at the sun, he then lent over to look under Toothless to see the thin wispy clouds below.

"Okay, maybe time to go below the clouds and dip down a little. Let's find an island to rest, stretch and get some lunch. Would you like to?" Hiccup asked, already stretching his arms upwards towards the heavens and making a stretching groan.

"Sure."

Toothless ducked a little, aiming further downwards. Gravity began to pull Hiccup forward slightly, and he adjusted himself to get comfortable.

They went through the clouds, only to be greeted by the sight of ocean once again.

"Sea. In all directions." Hiccup noted, glancing around himself in 360 degrees.

"Well, we may not be stopping anytime soon." Muttered the Night.

Making a noise of impatience, Hiccup pulled his compass out of his pocket once again, as if it was a map directing him to the nearest island.

Still, they were heading a direct west.

"I hope we haven't gone past it." Hiccup worried, consciously turning around to double check to see if there was some island that somehow managed to escape his vision.

"Doubt it." Toothless affirmed.

Several more minutes passed, further and further they descended till they were almost parallel with the water below.

"Hiccup, I think I see something."

Hiccup squinted to where Toothless was looking, he lay down frontwards and he could see it too. Quite far, at a fair distance away, was an island.

"Great." Hiccup sighed in relief, "finally somewhere to rest for the day and get some food." He leaned back again and sat up.

The island appeared to be rather small, at least from this distance, and certainly not as high as Berk and its surrounding sea stacks. It didn't appear to have any high mountains. But as they got closer, with their superb vision, they could see from the side they were coming from at least, it seemed to be lush green.

_Green is good. That means possible fruits, and maybe even animals._

It seemed to take forever to get there.

It was like watching a boat slowly sailing from the horizon towards Berk, Hiccup remembered once when Berk's fleet were returning from a dragon nest hunt. It took many, many hours before he could actually notice the boats getting closer.

Though the speed is of course greatly different. Toothless is going far faster than any boat could go.

At last the island seemed to be getting larger over a few minutes.

"Hiccup, when we get there, it would be wise to search the area for any Vikings and threats. After that I'll find us some fish," said Toothless.

"Good idea bud."

Finally, the island was very close. Its appearance consisted of relatively dense forest on the area that they were arriving on. It had a rocky, steep shore. Leading up a quite high cliff to where the forest began.

As far as they could see of the shore, it was rocky and steep. The waves of the coast pounding the cliff faces, slowly eroding the rock away.

The trees were tall, their trunks were thin, and the canopy was high. Hiccup had never seen such high, long trees in his life. They were at least twice as high as Berks.

The forest was a bright, vibrant emerald green. The canopy and scrub all seemed to blend in with each other.

At last, Toothless landed. Just several metres away from the cliff and into the forest.

Hiccup jumped off, placed the basket down off his back and stretched his arms, legs and most of his body.

"Ohhhhh, its good to be on solid ground." Spoke Hiccup, cheerfully. After sitting all night and all morning, he could finally walk. He noticed his birthmark once again turn blue as soon as he dismounted. He covered it with his sleeve.

The Night rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, it was only for-"

"DRRAAGON!"

Toothless was interrupted by a loud, terrified boyish shriek from what appeared to be person in the bush nearby, then a rustle of bushes and the sound of running footsteps.

Hiccup picked up his basket, hooked it around his back before sprinting into the forest after the boy, Toothless roaring behind him on his heels. His ears flat against his neck, teeth baring and growling.

With his speed and stamina increased, Hiccup easily outran the boy and when he finally reached him, he yelled, "Look its okay! We're not going to hurt you!"

The boy turned away, now screaming in fear, and then tripped over an uprooted tree root.

Hiccup approached him and seized him on the ground before he could ran away again.

"HELP! MUM! ANYONE! THERE'S A DRAGON!" He screamed.

"Its okay its okay! We're not going to hurt you! I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Hiccup tried to calm the little boy down, but the boy kept wriggling and struggling, he also kept glancing up to look at Toothless.

"Toothless, you want to back down! The boy is terrified go back a few steps!" Hiccup yelled over all the noise.

"Okay." Toothless ceased the aggressive stance, stopped snarling and took several steps back.

The boy suddenly stopped and looked at Hiccup still scared but more of a confused expression. He turned and looked at the Night Fury who was looking rather curious now, his ears raised and head tilted.

"How- wha-, how d-did you…" He stammered.

Hiccup took note of his features now. His hair was a short, very dark brown, nearly black and rather spikey. His eyes were hazel, a mixture of green and blue. A short, stubby nose with jet black eye brows. His clothes were brown, but he had a green belt. And by the size of his boots he had small feet. His physique was rather slim, with thin arms and legs but they were long, so he appeared rather tall.

Hiccup would have guessed he looked slightly similar in build to a younger version of himself.

Suddenly Toothless's ear plates rose up vertically and began twitching. He looked towards some nearby bushes. Hiccup could hear it too. It was the sound of approaching, running footsteps.

"Toothless hide! I'll call you if I need you! Don't be seen!" Hiccup whispered, trying to usher him away from the scene.

Hiccup heard Toothless obey and run into the bushes and take off. Hiccup quickly double checked his glowing blue birthmark to see if it was covered by his sleeve and could not be seen.

Just that second many Vikings suddenly burst through the dense scrub nearby, brandishing spears, swords and axes. Pointing them threateningly at Hiccup.

"Vhat's going on 'ere?!" Demanded one of them, a man, the largest one holding a sword.

"Polk!" Yelled another one of the four Vikings, who was a woman. She was looking at the boy, and then she turned and looked at Hiccup with a fierce glare. "What are you doing with my son?!"

Before Hiccup could even respond, he had forgotten he was still holding the boy captive on the ground. He released him immediately and stood up. And the boy went running back to who appeared to be his mother.

"W'o are ye'? Vhy vere ye' attacking ze boy?!" The largest one demanded again, gripping his sword very tightly, steadily approaching, as were the others around him except for the woman and her boy.

"I'm sorry, I frightened him. I didn't mean to. I didn't want to attract attenti-"

"Vell ya bloody vell did!" The same man bellowed. "Explain ye'self or ve'll-"

"All right! My name is Hiccup. I…. stumbled upon your island looking…. for food. My home was destroyed. And I…didn't know where…to go. I'm sorry." That was the best he thought he could come up with, Hiccup knew he'd call for Toothless soon if this didn't work.

"I don't want any trouble. I promise I mean no harm. I just climbed up the cliff and ran into the boy-"

"No he didn't! HE WAS ON A DRAGON! He spoke to it. I saw him!" Shouted the little boy, pointing a finger at Hiccup.

The woman suddenly kneeled down and placed her hands on the boys shoulders. She looked him right in the eye. "Riding a dragon? That's impossible Polk-"

"No it isn't!" Screeched the boy at his mother. A desperate look on his face. "I saw him! He's lying!"

"Okay okay I was lying. Yes, I was riding a dragon." Hiccup admitted. He knew that wouldn't go down well.

And he was right. All the Vikings apart from the boy and his mother burst into laughter.

"Listen, boy. I vouldn't believe ya even if ya shouted it to me face." The larger one said again, between laughing. "Now, vhat are you really 'ere for?"

"Yeah, tell us now." Spoke another Viking.

"Fine. Okay, how about we all lay down our weapons. Including me, and I'll show you that I can ride a dragon."

Hiccup knew it was risky idea, but he just might be able to pull it off in his opinion.

"All right." The largest one said, nodding. "Just for fun, ve'll put our veapons down. Eh guys? Just for a moment. 'e can't outrun us!" He said, with a rather amused and smug expression.

Surprisingly, all the Vikings then lay down their weapons.

Hiccup smiled and unhooked his sheathed sword from his belt and threw it into the distance.

The Vikings were a little surprised, some of them giving a questioning glance or two. He had just thrown away his only weapon for defence.

Then Hiccup took off the basket he had around his back, and whistled into the sky.

Immediately, to all the Vikings horror, Toothless burst through the canopy above and landed hard into the ground, right beside Hiccup who didn't flinch.

Hiccup hopped onto him and sat in the saddle.

Toothless bared his teeth and gave a little roar at them, then stopped and watched the Vikings.

"Is that a… saddle?" Murmured the woman clutching the boy.

"Yes." Hiccup replied.

Suddenly all the Vikings picked up their weapons in terror. And began to advance.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" Toothless roared and snarled at them, also spitting a ball of savage purple flame up into the sky as a warning. Baring his teeth, his ears flat and his body in a pounce charged position.

The Vikings retreated and two of them fell backwards. Their spiked helmets falling off their heads.

"See? I told you. And he is saying don't come any closer." Hiccup warned, with the slightest smile. "As I said, I promise you we mean no harm. We are only defensive. We won't attack you."

Hiccup jumped off him once again, walked over to where he threw his sword and picked it up. He buckled it back to his belt and walked back over to the Night. He also brought the basket back around his back.

"You-'ow, vhat… 'ow is zat beast not attacking ye'?" Stammered the largest Viking. Not moving an inch or taking his eyes off Toothless.

Hiccup was suddenly at a loss of what to say. He realised that the only reason dragons hadn't hurt him was because he has the Night's mark on his wrist.  
>What he wanted to do was to be able to train dragons not to attack Vikings.<p>

When he was in the arena, the dragon spotted his mark and thus didn't attack him.

He now knew what he had to do. He had to confront a wild dragon, make sure it doesn't know he has the Night's mark, and try to train it. Without Toothless's help.

He was pretty sure he could do it. He had a few tricks and ideas up his sleeve, theoretically speaking.

"Oi! Ve don't like to be kept vaiting! Answer me!" Shouted the Viking again.

Hiccup brought himself back to the current situation.

"Right. Okay, do you have any dragons like in cages, that you keep or anything here? Like to use for training or something?" Hiccup asked, in a very casual tone as if asking him if he had been fishing lately.

Toothless turned and looked at Hiccup, curious.

"Aye, got a few. Why?" Asked one of the other Vikings.

"I'll show you. I'll try and train them."

The large Viking looked at Hiccup as if he had gone insane.

"Dragons can't be trained." He said, though he sounded not entirely convinced.

Hiccup scoffed, "Then how would you explain this?" He walked over and stood next to Toothless. He gave him a light scratch under his chin, and the reaction was instantaneous.

Toothless closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, evidently in bliss. His ears flattened against his head as he pushed his head further towards Hiccup.

Stunned, and lowering their weapons, the Vikings awed. Staring shocked and mesmerised.

The largest Viking again stepped forward and lowered his sword. Hiccup ceased scratching the Night, as he and Toothless turned to face the Viking once again.

"All right. I accept. I'll lead you to the cages. But be varned, if zis is a plot, or if ye' or ze dragon attacks one of our villagers, ve vill not 'esitate to retaliate."

He held out his hand. "Are ve clear, 'iccup?" His other hand held the sword, but it was lowered.

Hiccup walked forward and shook the mans hand. "Yes I understand."

"Good." He spoke, smiling. He sheathed his sword, and the other Vikings sheathed theirs or lowered them. "Follow me. Men, tell ze village vhat 'as 'appened and make sure zat zey do not attack any of us!" He ordered the other Vikings.

At once, all the Vikings including the boy and his mother walked rather quickly back towards where they came from. And the largest man turned and walked too.

Hiccup began to follow, and Toothless walked alongside him.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Whispered Toothless next to him.

Hiccup nodded. "Positive. Alliances and friends with other tribes would be a fantastic asset to us. Even better if we could manage to convince them to have peace with the dragons."

Toothless said nothing, but Hiccup saw him nodding to himself out of the corner of his eye.

As they followed the Vikings through the dense bushland, the largest Viking slowed down a little and walked next to Hiccup.

"Vhats in ze basket?" He asked, curious.

"Just some clothes." Hiccup replied honestly.

"Ye' on a trip or somet'ing?"

"Something along those lines." Replied Hiccup politely.

"I t'ink ve s'ould introduce ourselves." He said. Clearing his throat. Hiccup noticed the man had a long, dark brown beard. That seemed to sway with each step he took. His eyes were a bright hazel and his hair was a light brown.

He had an elongated face, rather oval shaped to accompany his large, somewhat pointy nose. He was about the same size as Gobber, as far as Hiccup could judge.

"I am Asan, C'ief and Leader of Dyflin. And vhere are ye' from? And vhats ye' full name?"

Hiccup cleared his throat too and thought rather fast. As his heart beat quickened with the more steps he took. He could hear Toothless walking rather closely to him too, evidently nervous for what he was going to say.

Unsure what to do, he couldn't think of any random Viking town. Nor a Viking name that could replace his own.

"I'm Hiccup, just Hiccup. I am from….."

He paused; he knew he couldn't think of a random name. Plus he didn't want to lie or tell the truth, but he had to choose one.

"Berk."

_Oh no. I said it. Now he is going to know where I'm from. I shouldn't have said that!_

Asan, the chief of Dyflin, raised his eyebrows.

_Oh no._

**End of Chapter 9.**

**Thanks for reading, please post a review to share an opinion, and/or favourite or follow, if it's worthy, thanks!**

**Hope everyone is having or had wonderful holidays, or enjoying their work.**

**Thanks for the reviews, **_**I read every one**_** and they're awesome. **

**By the way: I'm always on the lookout for fellow FanFiction readers/writers to chat to online, and maybe even bump into one, one day in reality!**

**Till next time, peace out! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

"Just 'iccup eh? Zat is odd, zough zat name sounds a little familiar. Never 'eard of Berk zough." The chief of Dyflin replied.

_Well, that was an unexpected reply. A relief that he doesn't know Berk, but how would my name sound familiar?_

"Um, how does it sound familiar?" Hiccup asked him, rather nervously.

Asan shrugged. "Don't know for certain. Might 'ave once known ze Viking trader who comes 'ere once a year, mention somet'in about a nearby tribe w'ose cief vould ramble on about 'ow 'is son would make 'im proud one day vhen 'e took out some nasty dragon."

Hiccup suddenly had a horrible lurch in his chest, as if a dragon was inside his stomach and had made a loud roar.

"But never mind about zat. I barely see Trader Jo'ann anyvay as I said. Let's 'ead down to ze cages."

They now seemed to reach the edge of the forest, revealing a rather flat grassy land in front of them. There seemed to be many less houses than on Berk, what's more was they were more oval shaped at their tips. Instead of triangular like Berks.

The village of Dyflin was certainly smaller than Berk, and it had a flat coastline which consisted of a brown, sandy beach. Where Hiccup could see waves crashing.

Around further he could see the beach getting more slopey and rocks were starting to show, till he turned and it seemed that many more rocks were there till it became a steep rocky cliff.

What Asan had said stuck in his mind, it was rather hard to think straight for Hiccup, but he gathered up his wits and tried to let it slip through his mind for the moment.

"Nice village. It looks quite unique." Hiccup complimented to Asan. Giving an approving nod too.

"T'anks." Asan nearly positively beamed at him.

Other Vikings from the village came over and were forming a crowd that began to follow them.

Then, Hiccup saw them in the distance.

Metal cages were lined up against each other, but they were not in an arena or sheltered from the elements in any way. This town seemed to be too remote and small for that sort of thing Hiccup guessed.

Now he tucked his right hand even further into his pocket to make sure his glowing blue birthmark could not be seen.

"Hey Toothless, it might be best if you retreat to a distance so the dragons can't see you." Hiccup whispered to him.

"Okay, but I'll be watching closely. Whistle if you need me." He replied, and immediately he took off.

The Vikings around Hiccup all screamed in terror at the dragon flying, many running away and yelling, "DRAGON, WATCH OUT!"

Suddenly Hiccup felt a strong fist grip his shirt from behind. "'ey boy I said don't 'arm anyone!" The Chief shouted at him.

Hiccup pointed up into the sky, "I'm not, and neither is he, he is flying away. I told him to stay mostly out of sight." Toothless was now practically out of sight. He just sat perched at the top of a high tree in the distance.

"Right." The Chief released him, and turned around to face everyone, "IT'S OKAY EVERYONE IT'S STAYING THERE-"

He stopped at the end of his sentence, then turned back around to face Hiccup with a confused expression, "'ang on, did ye' say zat ye' told 'im to stay avay? Can ye' understand and talk to dragons?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yes I can, but that's really not what I want to talk about. I'd like to try and train your dragons please."

Dumbfounded, but accepting, Asan nodded and began walking towards the cages once again. As Hiccup walked alongside him.

"All right, ve 'ave got only two dragons 'ere. Ve only get raids once every few mont's or so. Zey are a 'ideous Zippleback and a T'underdrum. Ve get many T'underdrums because ve are a small island surrounded by sea. Ye' can see em in ze vater at certain times of ze year."

Hiccup nodded. Fascinated by the information. He had heard of Thunderdrums in the dragon manual before, vaguely recalling the book saying something like it was an oceanic reclusive dragon that travels at dusk, either flying or swimming. He couldn't remember much more.

"Do ye' vant me to release zem bot' or just one?" Asan asked, as they began getting much closer and the Vikings behind the two were backing off, wary.

"I'll release them. But I'll try the Zippleback first, just make sure you all stay away from it." Hiccup responded, his eyes fixed on the blue, but green and yellow spotted dragon.

It seemed to be asleep.

"Okay boy, if ye' vant to kill ye'self go for it."

That was it from Asan, who stopped walking and turned around to join the others.

_This is could be hard, but you have to do this Hiccup. You need to learn how to train a dragon without any help._

_Remember, focus. Just make sure to try and be friendly, give a gentle approach and be kind._

Hiccup got another thought after those, as he were a mere twenty feet from the cages, he took off the basket and unbuckled his sheathed sword. Placing both on the ground.

He heard whispers and murmurs of "he's gonna die," and "he's mad," behind him from the Vikings.

The only things on him were his notebook, compass and wrapping paper in his pockets. He realised that he clearly didn't need the wrapping paper, so he took it out and threw it away. It would decompose very quickly, being a weak type of parchment.

As he approached, he took his left hand out of his pocket to prepare to unlock the cage. It wasn't actually a lock, just a lever a metre or so away from the cages.

With his increased hearing ability, he could hear the dragons, both the Zippleback's heads and the Thunderdrum breathing in and out. Remarkably he could also still hear some murmurs of the Vikings behind him, watching anxiously.

He could smell what conditions they were in. An unpleasant, slimy smell of rotting fish was strong as well.

Their bodies didn't look too good either. Rather thin and their skin looked pale up close. Hiccup gathered that they probably both had been here for quite a while and have been fed a minimal amount.

The Thunderdrum was a pale violet colour, while the ZIppleback was a weak, and pale blue, with its green and yellow spots.

As he got close, The Zippleback stirred awake, seemingly to hear the sounds of Hiccups footsteps. However the Thunderdrum did not.

Then the Zippleback leapt up from its previous position lying down to standing in the small cage, and both its heads roared in fury.

Seemingly in a frenzy of anger, one of the Zipplebacks heads pumped heaps of greenish, foul smelling gas from its mouth, which spread quickly over a fairly large area.

Knowing what was coming, Hiccup sprinted back, just in time, as the second head then ignited the gas.

It burnt a whole section around the cages, scorching and blackening the ground, and even reaching Hiccup's basket. Which was now on fire.

By the time he ran over to it, it was burnt to a crisp. His basket, which had his clothes in it, was gone.

"Well, that's the end of that." Hiccup drawled. Now forgetting about it and resuming his task.

The commotion brought the Thunderdrum awake too, and it stood up but didn't roar. It just watched Hiccup.

"Get away from me, you filth!" Yelled one of the heads of the Zippleback as Hiccup began to approach. "You didn't even bring me food!" Bellowed the other head.

"I'm sorry I attacked your village," said the first head, "but we had no choice we were under control on the queen!" Added the second.

"Shut up Gas Twin! The Viking hasn't done anything!" Ordered a third, lighter voice of the Thunderdrum. It eyes not leaving Hiccup.

"Look, it hasn't even got a weapon." Observed the Thunderdrum. It's bright yellow eyes watching intensely.

Hiccup tried his best to ignore the bickering, and talking. Till he finally managed to reach the lever for the opening of the Zippleback's cage.

He pulled the lever, and at once the cage door fell open.

The Zippleback ran out and sprinted up to him. Both its heads now coming down supported by its long necks and faced Hiccup, who didn't flinch.

Not wanting to say anything, Hiccup decided to put his plan to the test.

He turned his head very slowly away and closed his eyes. At the same time he brought his left arm over with his hand outstretched to ever so slowly raise it up.

"Great ice of Bewilderbeast…" Muttered the Thunderdrum in the background. Hiccup was listening intently now, and he could also not hear a single sound coming from the Vikings he knew were watching.

After several seconds, or what seemed hours of agonizing waiting time, Hiccup suddenly felt a thick and sturdy skin of one head of the Zippleback against the palm of his hand.

Then he felt the dragon's head leave his hand, and suddenly felt another. At first he thought it was the same head, but it was a slightly different texture of skin than the first so he figured it must be the second head.

Extremely pleased with himself, he smiled and opened his eyes, also beginning to gently turn around.

"We want peace." Hiccup spoke, softly.

The dragon nodded. And began to step back. Hiccup put his arm down, and walked over to the Thunderdrum's cage.

He opened it, and did the same thing with the exact same result with the purple Thunderdrum.

Smiling, Hiccup turned around and beckoned the Vikings over.

"Leave your weapons! Don't bring them!" Hiccup called out.

At first, no one moved. But ever so slowly, some Vikings decided to come over. The first, to Hiccups complete surprise, was Asan the chief.

"Zat vas unbelievable boy. Ye' 'ave a gift." He mumbled. Asan took off his sheathed sword and put it on the ground next to Hiccups sword which was no longer sheathed, because it was burnt.

"Stay here. One at a time." Hiccup called out to the other Vikings. Who nodded.

Hiccup walked with him back over to the dragons, and Hiccup could sense Asan shaking with fear with each step.

"It's okay." He comforted. "Just relax."

After a few minutes, there was success. Asan had successfully touched both dragons and their heads and had managed to possibly even make friends with the Zippleback. It seemed rather fond of his long beard.

As Hiccup was walking back with Asan to the other Vikings who now were looking eager, Asan asked a question.

"Does zis mean anyt'ing zough? I mean, vill z'e dragon raids stop now?" Asan asked, sounding hopeful. His eyes gleaming.

Hiccup sighed and shook his head regretfully. "Unfortunately no. I can explain why to you and everyone if you like, perhaps later. I'm pretty hungry now and might head off with my dragon for some food, after I've convinced the dragons here to stay."

Asan made a noise of disappointment.

Very suddenly he stopped walking, and his face brightened as if he got an idea. His lips curving up into a hopeful smile.

"Vait, vhy don't ye' stay 'ere vith us for food? Vhat ye've s'own us today vas inspiring. It vould be an 'onour to 'ave ye' as our guest." Asan offered.

Hiccup smiled. That sounded like a wonderful idea.

"Really? You sure? The last thing I'd want to do is intrude."

Asan waved a hand around in the air. "Nonsense! It vould be great. Ve can talk over food, in our Village 'all. But as a varning some of ze villagers might not take to ze dragons as easily as me."

Hiccup nodded, "Of course I understand. But I'd like to have Tooth- I mean my dragon with me when we eat in the hall so I know he is around and safe. Also if we could feed the dragons, including mine with fish, they love fish, to keep them to stay, that would be great."

Asan nodded. "I'm sure zat can be arranged. If ye' don't mind could ya feed ze outside dragons, ye' seem to be ze qualified one, I vould very be grateful. Except don't feed yours. " He added in the end.

"Sure." Hiccup replied.

Asan then buckled his sword to his belt and sheathed it. While Hiccup just picked up his sword, and wondered what to do with it seeing that he did not have a sheath anymore.

So he just held it in his left hand.

Hiccup walked with Asan to a food storage area, and did the work.

An hour later…

Hiccup decided to leave the sword in the forest for the time being.

He had found the Zippleback and Thunderdrum a temporary cave in the forest too, for them to reside in till tomorrow. He and Asan had agreed that they were going to begin training the villagers tomorrow with the dragons.

He had also fed them, the two dragons that is, and they seemed in good spirits. Especially after a large meal of fish.

Toothless was astounded when he met Hiccup earlier, having had watched from a distance what had happened. Though Hiccup thought that the Night couldn't be thinking about much now because he was currently absolutely devouring a large stack of fish. Salmon to be exact.  
>While Hiccup and Asan together watched the Night Fury.<p>

They were currently in Dyflin's village hall, located in the centre of the town. It wasn't as large as Berks Great Hall, but it still was the biggest thing in town.

All the Vikings of the village can easily fit with room for more.

Hiccup, Asan and Toothless were at the higher, further end of the hall. Up on a sort of stage. While the rest of the villagers were close by, just in front of them sitting down in rows upon rows of tables and chairs. It was vastly packed, full of chatter and clattering cutlery.

The noise of it all was quite irritating to Hiccups ears, as he could pick up every single sound. He imagined it was the same way for Toothless.

Fortunately though, the strong scent of the food in front of them seemed to more than compensate for the noise.

Hiccup had to be careful to make sure his sleeve covered his birthmark. As it was glowing a bright blue permanently now because of Toothless being so near. His sleeve just managed to cover and dim the light.

"So," began Asan, as he and Hiccup started diving into the large amounts of food in front of them. Which involved cooked fish, lightly roasted chicken, yak, bread and fruit. "Vhat do ye' vant to talk about first?"

Between gulps of food, Hiccup managed to splutter out, "Firstly, where did you get all this food from? I never saw any animals." Wondered Hiccup.

"Our main trading partner." Asan answered, though frowning while he replied.

"Okay, and I'd like to personally apologise to that boy I met in the forest. My dragon and I scared him. I think his name is Polk…"

"Yes, I t'ink ye' very vell did. I'll take ye' to 'im after zis. Zat poor boy, lost a lot 'e 'as." Asan replied, chewing on a yak bone and spluttering everywhere.

Hiccup raised his eyebrows as he drank a mug of mead. "Really? What has he lost?"

Asan finished the yak bone and took a gulp of mead before answering. "Ye' see 'iccup, zat boy often vonders ze voods because 'e is lonely. 'is fat'er vas killed vhen 'e vas very young, 'e vas too young to remember. But 'e also misses 'is brot'er."

He then dug into a piece of chicken.

Interested, but saddened by such a loss at a young age, almost rather similar to him in fact, Hiccup asked, "What happened to his brother?"

Asan's eyes narrowly suspiciously as he ate, though he wasn't looking at Hiccup, he was just looking at the table. "Taken. By zem." Asan muttered, now looking angry and chewing fiercely on the chicken.

_This doesn't sound good._

Toothless had stopped eating in the background, and Hiccup noticed he had turned around and looked straight at Asan and Hiccup. Clearly interested but worried about what he was going to say.

His ears plates were raised right up, as he was licking his lips. He approached the table and laid his head on the flat surface with his eyes fixed determinedly on Asan.

"Them? Who are them? Or what are they?" Hiccup asked eagerly, getting more and more anxious. He even stopped eating and rested a hand on Toothless's head. He then picked up a mug of water this time.

Asan ripped the chicken from his mouth strongly with his hands and teeth, as if he was a wild beast tearing an animal apart, and then swallowed his mouthful. "Myrkians." He said rather loudly and aggressively.

Hiccup suddenly began coughing on the water as he attempted to drink, and it splattered out of his mouth, he began gasping for breath as he regained his composure. Toothless turned to look at him, shocked and a look of concern on his face.

"I'm fine bud." Hiccup muttered. Wiping his face with his left sleeve.

Asan raised his eyebrows, and looked at the shocked faces of Hiccup and the Night Fury.

"Ye' aven't 'eard of Myrkians? Ye' got to be kidding me!" Asan spluttered, bits of unswallowed chicken flying out of his mouth.

"I've heard of Myrka, but I don't know anything about it." Hiccup replied, stunned. This did not sound good at all to him.

_How bad are these Myrkians? What do they do?_

Asan slammed his fists down onto the table, sending wooden cutlery and plates clattering all over the place. The gesture reminded Hiccup a little bit of his father. "'ow can ye' possibly not 'ave 'eard of zem?! Ye' must be from some free, far avay land!"

Hiccup shuddered a little, nervous. Toothless let out a low growl, getting a little defensive.

"Zis Berk must be far across ze sea. Ye' are lucky boy, ye' s'ould leave zis place and go back to vhere ye' came from. 'opefully ze Myrkians von't spread to Berk."

Hiccup and Toothless shook their heads.

"I'm afraid I can't go back yet. Please, we must know as much as we can about the Myrka tribe." Hiccup pleaded.

Asan sighed, "All right. I'll tell ye' everyt'ing tomorrow. For now, I'll give ya a tour of ze village if ye'd like. Vould ye' like to stay 'ere overnight?"

Hiccup smiled, "That would be great. Thank you."

Asan stood up, leaving all the food, wooden plates and cutlery behind. Hiccup and Toothless followed, walking slowly out.

All the villagers were eying the dragon cautiously, some even grasping swords in their belts.

As they were walking through the door, Hiccup glanced behind him over Toothless and saw the Vikings cleaning up.

"Shouldn't we stay and clean up?" Hiccup asked, turning back to Asan and keeping the door open.

Asan shook his head. "Ye' are our guests, ve'll serve ye.'"

Hiccup didn't like leaving the work to be done by other people, he preferred doing it himself, but out of respect for the decision of the chief he followed him out.

Asan gave them the tour, showed him where the chief's house was, and showed him the beach and a wharf that Hiccup didn't notice before, where their boats docked.

He also gave them a tour of their forge, at Hiccups request. It was rather small and crammed.

And of their armoury, which Hiccup noticed was very limited in diversity of weapons and of weapons stock.

At long last, as the afternoon turned into evening, Asan took them to a house.

"Zis is ze 'ouse zat boy called Polk lives in. 'e lives vith 'is mot'er, Drifa. Polk is a bit sensitive, I'd be careful vhat ye' say. Vhen ye' are ready to sleep, come up my 'ouse as I've got room for ye' bot.'"

"Thank you Asan, we'll come up soon." Hiccup shook his hand again and nodded appreciatively.

Asan turned around and headed back towards his house, mingling in with some other passing Vikings.

"Shall we try and have a chat with him?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury.

"If you like, yes. It would seem the right thing to do is apologise." Responded the Night, shaking his head and body and giving his neck a scratch with a paw.

Hiccup strolled up to the door, and knocked three times.

There was a scramble from inside, till the door flew open and there stood the woman Hiccup instantly recognised from earlier.

"Hi, uhh Drifa? I'm Hiccup, we met earlier?"

The woman's smile dropped as she recognised him and the dragon behind.

"What do you want?" She demanded, looking a little frustrated and nervous at the same time.

Hiccup cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck with his left hand, "I was just wondering if I could possibly talk to your son Polk? I'd like to apologise to him for scaring him earlier."

She didn't answer straight away, instead a look of consideration was on her face.

"All right. I don't trust you yet, so I'll take you to him. He's down at the beach. And please…" She now shut the door behind her and then looked at Toothless nervously, "keep that away from my son and me."

"I understand. Toothless, you wanna just stay a little further away from them?" Hiccup asked, now turning to the Night.

"Okay." The dragon nodded. Toothless took a few steps back.

She began walking rather quickly, and Hiccup followed behind with Toothless on his heels.

After a few moments, they arrived at the beach and Hiccup began scanning the surroundings for the boy.

"There he is." Hiccup pointed to him, he was sitting down at the top of a sand dune, staring out towards the water.

Drifa began walking towards Polk at once, and once again Hiccup and Toothless followed.

As soon as they got near, the boy turned.

"Mum, have they gon-"

He cut himself off from finishing his sentence as he spotted Hiccup behind his mother, and the dragon.

"Polk, the young man wants to talk to you." Spoke Drifa softly.

The boy stood up, a look of terror on his face.

"Not with the dragon around!" Polk exclaimed.

"Oh for the great ice of Bewilderbeast…" Muttered Toothless under his breath, sounding upset, "fine, I'll fly to the forest and watch from there."

Without another word, he took off and vanished from view of the Vikings. Hiccup however could still see him crouching at the top of a tree, due to his great eyesight.

"Look, Polk…" Hiccup began turning around from facing the forest to facing Polk, in which his mother now stood behind him. "I'm sorry I startled you before, okay? I would never hurt you. At the time, I was scared too."

The boy raised his eyebrows, almost as in disbelief.

"You were too?" He asked.

Hiccup nodded, and walked over next to him and sat down on the dune. His mother Drifa, sat down too and so did Polk.

"Yeah. I had no idea what you would do if I let you off. For all I knew, you could have brought back an army of Vikings to come and hurt me."

Polk didn't say anything.

Many minutes passed and they all watched the evening sky get darker as the sun went down behind them.

Hiccup noticed that Polk & Drifa weren't looking at him at this exact moment, so he took the chance to have a quick look at his right arm's birthmark.

It wasn't glowing. Hiccup guessed that it was a far distance between this beach and the forest. He turned, and he could only just make out Toothless at the top of the trees. So he decided to say something rather risky, but he wanted to try and cheer the boy up.

"Hey Polk, can I show you a secret?"

He turned towards Hiccup and nodded eagerly, smiling. As Drifa turned too, to look.

"Now Polk, you have to promise you won't tell anyone about this, okay? This is between you, me and your mum. Okay?" Hiccup asked, smiling at Polk.

Polk nodded.

Hiccup withdrew his sleeve on his right wrist, and showed the mark to Polk and Drifa.

"It's hard to see in this light, is it a birthmark?" Drifa asked, clearly squinting at it.

"It looks awesome!" Polk admired. Looking at it closely. Then his face brightened up suddenly.

"You know," Polk started, sounding excited, "My brother Kormak has some sort of mark on his right arm too! He showed me last year, before he was taken to Myrka. It wasn't quite like that, but it definitely looked like a dragon!"

**End of Chapter 10.**

**Thanks for reading, please post a review to share an opinion, and/or favourite or follow, if it's worthy, thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**NOTE: Rating beefed up to T now, for violence and bits of gore.**

**Chapter 11:**

Back on Berk, Astrid was fuming.

She was in the forest, throwing her axe against the trees, and missing them several times.

She could not stop thinking about that useless boy, Hiccup. Ever since she had read the note he left, she couldn't figure out what to think.

On one hand, she was angry that one of Berk's people, especially one of such high status as the son of the chief, had just left Berk as if it was as easy as that. Like he couldn't care less. That showed weakness.  
>She hated weakness.<p>

On the other, she was pleased that he had left. He had betrayed them, plus had chosen the side of a dragon, their enemy.

But, finding out that her favourite axe that she had adored for years was crafted by such a person, she couldn't accept that.

Every time she threw the axe, she felt like she was throwing Hiccup. Therefore she missed her tree targets and ended up retrieving it each time.

"Arrgh!" She slammed her rear end onto the dirt and sat down aggressively, her hands on her face while her axe rested beside her.

She couldn't be feeling like this, she just shouldn't.

It wasn't in her nature.

She was supposed to hate him, to loathe him.

To not pay attention to anything about him.

She was not supposed to have this tiny little feeling inside, the first time she had ever felt it over some random boy.

She could not get rid of it.

It was just the slightest, smallest feeling, of a minimal amount of guilt.

She knew there was only one person she could go to, to talk about it. One that wouldn't judge overly, one that knew him well, one that he considered an only friend.

It was nearly nightfall, and the blacksmith was working in the forge.

Gobber hammered away relentlessly against the hot metal, pausing once every few minutes for a break.

He was missing him already. He missed having someone to talk to. Someone to order around. Someone to teach his metal working skills to, and most importantly, someone who thought he was a mentor.

The snarky comments and looks Hiccup would give him burned in his memory. His sarcasm also would be missed.

He wondered whether he ever would see him again, he hoped so. He understood why he left, he could almost picture it coming.

The way he was treated was unfair, unfortunately Gobber seemed to be the only one who could see it.

Though Gobber knew that Hiccup had befriended a dragon and had left, his message he left behind to the others seemed to show the fact that he was going to try and make the world a better place.

Gobber admired that. That showed determination, confidence, and a strive to achieve a goal.

It also showed strength.

Not weakness.

That much Gobber understood.

Just then there was a knock on the windowsill.

Gobber looked up, and saw who it was.

Unsurprised by the visitor, he showed no sign of recognition and looked back down to continue his work.

"Hello Gobber."

Gobber nodded. "Well, if it isn't the master of dragon training herself." Spoke Gobber, once again not taking his concentration off his work.

Astrid sighed, and walked over to a chair in the forge and sat down. Placing her axe on the ground next to her.

"How's the chief?" She asked, her voice echoing through the forge over to Gobber.

"He's… well, what do yeh think?" Replied Gobber, as if it hadn't been obvious.

"Furious." She uttered. She knew Stoick was angry. "Is he feeling anything else though?"

"I don't know lass. I haven't seen him since I told him what happened." Gobber said, in his honest reply.

He too was curious about his friend, Stoick.

"How are yeh feeling about it?" Gobber asked her, as he banged away at the metal.

Astrid didn't answer.

Gobber stopped his work, and walked over to Astrid and sat down opposite in a large armchair. His moustache now hanging off the sides of the chair.

"Do yeh regret it?"

Astrid knew exactly what he was talking about. He was talking about what she said to Hiccup that last time in the arena of dragon training.

Her immediate answer was no. But she couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't bring herself to say yes either.

The golden haired blonde just thought over and over again.

"I don't know." She murmured.

Back on Dyflin…

Hiccup froze.

He wasn't sure if he had heard correctly…

_Did this little boy, Polk, just say that his brother has a dragon mark?_

"Are you all right?" Drifa asked, looking straight into Hiccup's face with a look of concern. "Polk I think we better leave him to his thoughts."

Drifa began to stand.

"Wait…" Hiccup whispered, still barely believing what he just heard.

"Did…did you just say… that your brother has a mark on his arm?"

Polk nodded. "Yeah. It looks like a dragon, but it's not the same as yours. Why? It's just a mark." He shrugged.

Hiccup stood up abruptly.

"How far is Myrka from here?" Hiccup demanded from Drifa, speaking quickly. "I need to know right now."

Polk and Drifa stood up too, taken aback by the urgency. Drifa began shielding Polk as if Hiccup was about to yank him away.

"You're not seriously thinking-"

"HOW FAR?!" Hiccup shouted. Desperate. He must go to Myrka, now that he knew for certain one person was there, he needed to rescue him and show him he's one of the Six.

"Don't shout at me!" Drifa warned, now holding Polk tight to her chest. Polk was starting to look nervous now too.

"It's about two weeks west of here by boa- HEY!"

Hiccup immediately began sprinting away towards Asan's house, he started waving his arms in the air, not caring is his sleeve fell back showing his birthmark. Trying to get Toothless's attention.

Toothless came flying down very fast, and joined Hiccup in running to Asan's house.

"What is it?! What do you know?!" He said rather loudly as he ran alongside him.

"I'll tell you in a minute." Hiccup responded, still running.

He reached the Chief's house and burst open the door, it swung around so fast and smashed into the wall. Asan was sitting at a table and jumped to his feet and the table toppled over.

"VHAT IN ZE NAME OF ODIN-"

"ASAN! I just wanted to thank you very much for everything. I must leave right now. Good luck with the dragons, just remember to be friendly, and don't harm them and they won't harm you. I promise I'll come back one day. If Myrkians ever come, don't tell them about me, my dragon or anything that Drifa says. Farewell!"

With that, Hiccup ran outside just as Asan yelled, "Vait! Vhat's zat on ye' arm? Vait VAIT!"

Hiccup jumped onto Toothless, strapped himself in and yelled "Run to the forest! I must get my sword!"

Without a word of complaint or question, Toothless was just about to sprint away, when they heard a voice behind them.

"What's so important about the mark?!" Hiccup heard Drifa scream out. He turned around and shouted, waving his right arm in the air while doing so, "It's not just a mark!"

"I'll bring back Kormak for you too! I promise!" He added.

"Go!" Hiccup said.

Toothless roared and charged off towards the forest.

When they arrived they couldn't find it, they searched everywhere, the forest was too big.

"Forget it! Let's go!"

Toothless took off and flew high up into the air.

Hiccup withdrew his compass as fast as he could from his pocket and directed Toothless to fly west.

"Okay, we're heading west now. What is going on?" The Night demanded.

Pocketing his compass once again, Hiccup explained to the Night.

"You mean, you think one of the Six is Polk's brother?"

"Yes!" Replied Hiccup, excited that Toothless understood the urgency of the situation. "You see, they said he was taken to Myrka, so we must find him."

Toothless let out a growl, "Hiccup, we don't know a thing about Myrka. Or why Polk's brother Kormak was taken. From what I've heard from Asan, it can't be good."

"I know. Exactly why we can't wait around any longer. We've got to go and see." Hiccup was certain he was right, it would be better to go and try and find out first.

Toothless frowned, looking at the clouds in front of him. "I disagree. We should have found out more before we left."

"Well it's too late now. We're not turning back."

Hiccup was getting a little frustrated. He was right, Toothless was wrong. They didn't need any more information, people's lives could be at stake.

Now that it was night, it was quite a relief being stealthy. They both knew they could not be seen at the dead of night.

The scents of the night air filled Hiccups lungs, as he breathed it all in.

He found himself relaxing, this was beautiful. He was a little cold, but he felt he could deal with it.

Then, all of a sudden there was a blinding flash of light ahead of them, startling them both. Quickly followed by a roar of deafening thunder.

"Oh Thor, a storm. Let's find cover bud."

"Yep. I could do with a sleep."

He ducked down and they both began searching for land.

"There, there's a little island," said Toothless. He dived towards it, just as large, freezing drops of rain started coming down from the sky. Followed by another blinding flash of lightning and its accompanying booming thunder.

Within a few seconds, they had landed on the rocky island. Due to the rain it was hard to see, but Toothless ran along it till he found a cave.

He rushed inside, and luckily it was dry.

"Nice and cosy." Hiccup joked.

Toothless said nothing.

Hiccup walked around the small cave, looking for any dry wood.

"I can barely see a thing." He muttered.

"At least I'm not too wet, I won't need to take off my clothes. But there's no wood, so I can't keep warm."

"Just lie down next to me." Grunted Toothless, opening a wing.

"Ok."

The cave started to get more and more illuminated by the lightning flashing outside.

Hiccup curled up into the warmth on the wing, and surprisingly, sleep came rather fast.

The next morning, Hiccup awoke to a hard, freezing ground beneath him. He opened his eyes, and sat up. Smells of the ocean flooded his nose, and the sound of the waves entered his ears.

He looked around the cave, it was empty.

He was alone.

"Toothless?" Hiccup called.

No answer.

"Toothless?!" He shouted.

No answer.

He stood up, and walked out of the cave to observe the island.

It was smaller than he had originally thought, certainly at least a third of the size of Dyflin. Though the island only seemed to be consistent with rocks.

Starting to worry, he went around the cave, and still did not see him. Hiccup could now see the whole island, and there was no dragon he could spot.

_Was it something I said? We disagreed last night, but he wouldn't leave just because we had a little argument surely…_

"Oh Toothless… I'm sorry." Hiccup sat down at the top of the cave, his legs dangling over the edge as he placed his head into his hands.

He let his hands fall to his knees, and suddenly noticed his dragon birthmark peeking out of his sleeve. It was its normal black.

He brought his arm up to his face and drew his sleeve back to stare at Night's mark. Hiccup just stared at it, waiting, hoping… for it to turn blue.

Then, it did.

It glowed a dim blue, then started to get brighter very quickly.

Hiccup looked up, and Toothless was flying steadily straight towards him.

As he approached, Hiccup noticed that he seemed to be carrying something.

Toothless landed at the foot of the cave, looking up at him. Hiccup noticed two things. His throat looked like it had a yak in there or something, appearing rather inflated, and in his paws was a stack of branches, sticks and wood.

Before he could even react or say something, Toothless emptied his mouth and throats contents onto the ground.

Fish, some of which were still alive, came out. And started flapping around on the ground.

"Toothless!"

Hiccup jumped down from the top of the cave and rushed up to the Night Fury. And he embraced him.

"I thought you left, I woke up and you weren't here." Hiccup cried.

Toothless crooned, sounding mournful. Leaning his head in to his best attempt at a hug. "I'm sorry, I was just getting us breakfast."

"No, I'm sorry. I was arrogant last night. I shouldn't have been like that."

Toothless let out a low purr, a beautiful humming, comforting sound that Hiccup could feel vibrating through him.

"Let it pass. Come on, let's eat before the fish get back to the ocean." The Night chirped.

They broke apart, and Hiccup saw indeed that the fish were flapping around so much, they might even indeed make it back to the ocean if they didn't stop them.

Toothless brought the wood into a pile and snapped the large branches into pieces for a fire before he shot a blast into it.

Meanwhile Hiccup got all the fish into an area, and took one of the snapped branches Toothless brought and pierced it into a fish.

"Where did you get all this wood from? I don't see any islands nearby." Hiccup asked, rather curiously.

Toothless walked over to the fish pile, then said, "There is an island not too far away, you can see it from the sky. I managed to get the wood from there."

The dragon then dug into the fish, bits of flesh splattering everywhere.

"You like your fish, don't you bud?" Hiccup chuckled, while he held his fish over the fire.

"There is nothing better." He muttered between mouthfuls.

Smiling, Hiccup stared at the fire. Thinking. And the more he thought, the more he realised he knew almost nothing about Toothless.

"What did you do before you were captured by the queen in the dragons nest back near Berk?"

Toothless froze, clearly not expecting the question.

"Lots of things." He then took another gulp of fish, going back to normal.

Hiccup didn't press the subject, as Toothless didn't elaborate so he guessed it may be a sensitive topic. So he let it go.

Once breakfast was finished, they cleared away the fire and prepared to take off once again.

"Ready? Here we go." Toothless prepared himself, shook his body and crouched down.

"Let's go."

The dragon pounced into the air, the speed of it blasting Hiccup backwards into the saddle and whipping his hair back.

Toothless beat his powerful, magnificent wings and climbed into the air. The storm had cleared from last night, and in its place was a beautiful clear sky.

Higher and higher they flew, until the island they were on previously was barely a speck in the distance.

"A little to the left, that's it. We're going west now." Hiccup announced, as they corrected their course.

It wasn't long before they spotted land, this time much larger than simple islands.

"Wow, look at all the land mass," said Hiccup, leaning over Toothless's side and staring down at the coast below. "We must be over either some huge island, or this might be the mainland."

"We'll find out soon. I know the mainland has some pretty large mountains not far from the coast." Toothless replied.

Hiccup didn't ask Toothless how he knew that, and just went along with it.

Looking down below, he noticed a little island not far from the shore of the larger one. Hiccup guessed that was where Toothless went to get the wood.

On the main coast they were flying over from the sky, the sand on the coast was a brilliant white, and where the sand ended, was thick, dense forest.

The further they flew, all they could see was forest. A strong, vibrant green. It was still flat, no mountains or slopes. And no sign of villages.

Then all of a sudden the island stopped and became sea again. Though the water looked quite shallow for quite a distance. The sand very visible through the water, then Hiccup noticed why.

The islands were connected, under the sea. As they flew another island came into view, and also filled with forest.

However, it quickly became hilly, and there were many slopes.

"This looks more like it." Toothless muttered, looking around observing the place.

"The mainland?"

"Yes."

Without much time passing, very quickly mountains of a truly massive scale, far higher and larger than Berks ones, became visible. Two mountains right next to each other.

"So if this is the mainland, Myrka can't be far. I'd assume it would be on the mainland." Hiccup noted. He turned around and saw the shallow coast disappearing into the distance.

The forests' began to thin out as they approached the mountains, of which appeared to be very rocky and were up into the sky even higher than they were flying.

Hiccup looked up as they approached, and spotted a little bit of snow at the very top of both of them.

The mountain on their left was very pointy, rather like the tip of a sword at the top. While the other on their right looked more like a flat surface or crater at the tip, like a volcano.

They passed in-between the mountains, and then a remarkable sight was present.

Endless areas of cleared forests could be seen. The ground was brown and flat now and it looked like hundreds of thousands of tree stumps were there. It started from where this side of mountains sloped down, and looked like it didn't stop.

Then, ever so hard to see, Hiccup could notice very tiny looking objects moving around the cleared forests.

Vikings.

Many of them.

_They were obviously carrying all the-_

"Hiccup look!" Came Toothless's sudden voice, interrupting his thoughts.

He turned around to look at where the Night's head was looking, and looked in that direction.

It didn't take him long to see what he was looking at.

On the ground below, linked in large metal chains that were being supported by many Vikings, was a bright orange coloured dragon, with a large wingspan. Its wings were flat, and even from the distance in the sky they were at, there were obvious signs of large scars and cuts on the dragon's wings.

"That poor Snapwood!" Exclaimed Toothless, fury clearly present in his voice.

"That… that looks like a Timberjack. I read about it in the dragon manual back on Berk. You suppose they used it to cut the forests?" Hiccup proposed, looking down at the dragon.

"It appears so." He growled. "Oh I so want to go down there and free it."

Hiccup looked ahead of them.

"Bud, look…" Hiccup pointed ahead.

Toothless snapped his head up to look.

The ground rose up a little more, and became a sort of wave in the ground, like a small hill that stretched for miles horizontally to where they were flying. On the top of the wave like hill, was a high, thick wall.

The wall spanned across the hill for miles, but that wasn't what Hiccup was looking at.

"Great ice of Bewilderbeast…"

Behind the wall, was undoubtedly, hundreds, if not thousands, of craters in the ground. Similar, but much smaller and shallower than the cove on Berk. All of which had sturdy, metal chains covered over every single one.  
>For as far as their eyes could see, these craters had a stained red dirt ground at the bottom, but what Hiccup noticed, was each one had a dragon inside.<p>

It was a prison on a truly massive scale. Out of one of the occasional craters in the distance, blasts of fire could be seen coming out of some.

In-between all the craters, were narrow pathways. All the pathways were stained red. Some of which Hiccup could see movement on. There were Vikings down there, looking like they were pushing crates, wheelbarrows and loads of stuff.

Hiccup squinted, then suddenly emptied his stomachs contents over Toothless's side as realisation crashed upon him. He saw looking at the crates and wheelbarrows, on them, were parts of dragons. On some large wheelbarrows, there was even one as whole.

Heads, legs, wings, and even body parts. They weren't covered in cloth or anything, and blood was clearly dripping off the sides of the wheelbarrows from said body parts. Hence the red stains.

Then, as if to make matters worse, the smell suddenly bombarded his nose. Stinking, smelly and even some rotting flesh and guts made him retch even more.

Toothless flew on, looking at each crater, the pathways, and not making a sound.

At last, it seemed the craters were getting fewer, then they stopped at a line.

And something else could be seen instead of craters, now there were cages.

Large cages that spanned in every direction too. Only these housed a very different type of animal.

Vikings.

Humans.

They were in the cages. It seemed nearly as many, if not the same amount of cages for Vikings as the craters were for dragons.

Although, some cages had cover over them. So they couldn't see what was in those cages.

At last, the cages came to an end, and there was a large building that stretched a fair distance at the border. Quickly followed by a wall which had massive doorways.

This wall Hiccup recognised as the same wall they saw earlier that they flew over. So the wall stretched around the craters and cages for a long distance and came back together here, on this East side.

Squinting into the far distance to the left of them, which was South, Hiccup could just make out the ocean. And also several long wharves, with at least hundreds of boats around and tied to them.

Looking back in front of him, he noticed the Viking landscape changed again.

Now, they could see buildings. Lots of buildings. Mostly square shaped, like cubed buildings. And thousands of people moving in between as far as they could see.

Toothless ducked down a little closer to land, and Hiccup realised why.

At what seemed to be the entrance from the dragon's and Viking's prison into this new, bustling area, was a huge sign that Toothless obviously wanted Hiccup to read. Below it, hundreds of Vikings moved in-between, most going into the entrance and not towards the prisons.

Hiccup read it, without Toothless or himself saying anything, then he climbed back up higher into the sky.

"What did it say?" Toothless asked at long last.

"Myrka Markets." Hiccup spat, the taste of his sick still bitter on his tongue.

**End of Chapter 11.**

**If only I could put three genres into this story, I'd have Adventure, Friendship & Drama. **

**Anyway, please leave a review to share an opinion or favourite/follow if you like it. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

They climbed up higher into the sky, and returned to their normal flying height. But both their eyes were kept on the ground below them. Observing.

The largely market area seemed to spread over a wide area. Appearing as stalls, small buildings and outlets.

Further they flew, once again the scenery changed.

Now they could see straight ahead of them in a westerly direction, not far after the markets stopped was yet another wall, circling around a vast area.

Only this time, this area appeared greener and fresher, nicer smells were apparent. It seemed that, this area was for fruit and vegetables. And farming too, as they could see several paddocks in this whole area. This must be the West side.

Still, to their far left in the southerly direction, Hiccup could see the ocean, though he couldn't see the wharves he spotted before.

They kept going west, and it appeared that after the wall was purely desert, flat plains and basically nothing.

"Let's turn right, head North. We know what's on the East, South and West sides now." Said Hiccup.

Toothless nodded, still not talking. And Hiccup didn't blame him, he didn't want to talk either after what horrid things he had just seen.

But they needed an overview of Myrka. They needed to know how big it was and what it consisted of.

The Night Fury turned and returned along their same flight path, now heading East.

Toothless returned to hover right above what appeared to be the central part of Myrka Markets, still very high up in the air.

"All right." Hiccup got out his compass, and directed Toothless in a northward direction.

So he began heading north, and eventually the markets stopped.

This time, what could be seen now after the markets ended into a flat desert like plain, however with a clear and defined road track between the markets and what was ahead of them.

Houses were what was here. All of which appeared exactly the same in size and shape.

Hiccup didn't know why exactly, but so far including Berk, Dyflin and now Myrka, Vikings all seem to have a fascination with building triangular houses out of only wood.

These houses looked almost the same as the ones on Berk, rather than Dyflins'. On Dyflin their houses were more oval shaped and less pointy.

They stretched for miles, and each one faced the same direction. They all were the same colour, and they went on for ages. In spatial terms, these houses stretched for a larger distance than the markets did, but at least a little more spread out.

_So, this must be where all the other Vikings live. I wonder if the prisoners ever come here or if they are forced to stay in the prison._

Eventually, the houses came to an end. At this end, was one pathway which seemed to have less Vikings. However, at the end of the pathway, was something that took them completely by surprise.

A huge crater in the ground, filled with netting around the top like the craters in the prison, packed with at least thousands of what appeared to be from this distance, seats all around the edge.

It sloped down from the seats to a yet again stained red and brown ground.

Around the outside were large entrances to the seating area, and finally one very huge entrance. There also were entrances into the ground. The pathway that led from the markets split in two and circled around the crater till it met once again on the other side.

_Was this some sort of humongous arena? Like a stadium?_

Hiccup thought so, its appearance suited exactly that.

The very large entrance on the north side of the stadium had the long pathway leading from it. But now the pathway looked almost empty, and seemed to be far cleaner and it was coloured a dark red.

Following it with his eyes, Hiccup watched the pathway till it led to at last what looked like some sort of extremely big building.

Rather like a castle, perfectly symmetrical. It had pointed roofs from towering watch towers. Its windows small and squared. However directly above the massive doors at what appeared to be the main entrance, was one large window.

At the castle's front, were two lushy vibrant green lawns. One on either side of the leading pathway.

_This must be where Myrka's leaders are._

Still they flew on, but behind the castle was just long, deserted flat light brown plains. With no sign of any other urban or industrial areas.

"So, that's all of Myrka." Hiccup affirmed. Letting out a huge breath.

"Yes." Toothless growled. "Let's go back to the mountains and find somewhere to stop."

Hiccup nodded, Toothless seemed to know what he was thinking.

He whipped around, and began flying rather quick back to where they came from.

It took a bit of time, but at the faster speed they got to the edge of the forest on the opposite of Myrka on one of the mountains they flew in-between earlier.

It certainly was a steep-ish slope. As Hiccup dismounted the Night, he nearly fell over when he touched the ground. Having to suddenly grip Toothless to avoid so.

"Well, we found Myrka." Muttered Toothless. Hiccup turned and looked at him as he sat. He looked like he was about to explode. His ears were steadily flattening, his eyes were narrowing and his teeth were out.

"It's okay-" Hiccup tried, but it was useless.

"ARRRGH!" Toothless roared, losing control of himself and sprinting to the forest. He began shooting fire blasts in all directions.

Hiccup sat down, and prepared to wait it out.

"HOW DARE THESE PEOPLE!"

Another fire blast, hitting a tree and setting fire to it. Luckily there was no wind blowing so it didn't spread.

"WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE!"

Another.

"GREAT ICE OF BEWILDERBEAST, HOW ON OUR GREAT EARTH DID THINGS GET THIS WAY?!"

He ran into several trees, knocking a few down and uprooting them before sending another fire blast into the sky.

The fire on the tree earlier burnt the tree to the ground, it did not spread to any other trees.

"WISEST ONES, HOW COULD SIX PEOPLE AND DRAGONS EVEN POSSIBLY CHANGE THE MINDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE?! LOOK AT WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING!"

He ran back towards Hiccup, and sprinted up the side of one of the mountains. His steps thundering the whole area.

"OH, NOT TO MENTION DESTROY THE QUEEN!"

He got to the tip and roared his loudest Hiccup had ever heard. An ear piercing, deafening and deep roar that would even make the gods cower in his presence.

The sound would have travelled for miles around. Hiccup was sure all of Myrka would have heard that.

After another minute…

"Toothless."

Hiccup didn't even yell, or speak very loudly. His voice was just above a whisper. But Hiccup knew Toothless would hear it. He didn't have great hearing for nothing.

The young man Hiccup looked up towards the mountain, and saw his best friend slowly sliding down the frosty tip.

Then he started running down the slope, till he eventually made it back and he seemed nervous.

He trod gently on the ground, keeping his head down and ears flat. And lay down directly in front of Hiccup. As if he was expecting to be punished.

Hiccup smiled at him.

"Toothless, nothing is impossible. Except this."

The Night looked up, confused.

"That's why we're here. To make the impossible possible. We may not be able to do enough just being the two of us, but if we find and unite the Six, who knows what we'll be able to achieve. All we have to do, is find them and get them out of Myrka."

"Let's think about what we know. We know that Gothi said two are in Myrka, we're pretty certain one of them is named Kormak and he's a guy. If he was taken from Dyflin, its possible that he is in the prison."

"As for the other, I'll have to find myself."

He nodded, looking solemn.

Hiccup stood up and grabbed his face. Staring right into his eyes. "We can do this."

"I know."

After a while they separated.

"So, any ideas?" Said Toothless.

"Let's go and get a closer look at the prisons. See if we can sneak up and I'll try and find out anything I can about Kormak." Hiccup suggested.

"What if we get caught?"

Hiccup sighed, "You know, I hate to say this. But getting caught may be our only way in and finding out."

Toothless shook his head. "There is no way that is happening."

Hiccup gave a light chuckle, not doubting Toothless would let that happen anytime soon.

"Okay, well let's perhaps take another fly over the prisons. So if we can find somewhere hidden to land and sneak in. How about that?" Hiccup asked, as an alternative suggestion that didn't sound too bad.

Hiccup stood up, getting bits of gravel off his pants.

"Hmm. Well it's risky, but I can't think of a better one."

The Night stood up too, and shook himself. Giving a scratch to his neck.

"Ready bud?"

Toothless winked and nodded. "As ready as never."

Giving a short laugh, he jumped onto Toothless and they were back in the air once again. Where they belonged.

He climbed yet again into the sky, and turned around to fly in-between the mountains.

As soon as they went over the edge of the mountains, the sight of the cleared forests, the huge wall and the prisons could be seen.

The Night Fury flew high to start with, checking out the area. There were still many Vikings walking around between the cleared forests. Though most seemed to be heading back towards the prisons, or more likely to Myrka markets. Carrying wood.

The Timberjack, or as Toothless called it, the Snapwood, was nowhere to be seen.

Now flying over the wall, Toothless flew lower. They were now flying above the dragon prisons.

Suddenly, screams of "FIRE!" rung out across the whole area.

Before they even registered what was happening, at least five bola nets came flying out of nowhere straight at them. The bola launchers were actually camouflaged against the brown dirt in random corners with Vikings standing next to them.

Toothless suddenly lurched and swerved so violently to avoid them, and fast, Hiccup was thrown out of the saddle, and sent plummeting.

"HHIICCUUUUPP!" Roared the Night Fury as he was tangled in a net and falling too.

"TOOOOTHLESSS!" He screamed back, though he wasn't tangled in a bola net.

Hiccup screamed all the way down, but landed successfully on his hands and feet. It hurt a little but not enough to cause damage. After all he did have Night Fury strength.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup yelled, now standing and running around the dragon craters.

Suddenly Vikings came around another crater in the distance and saw him.

"ALL HANDS, INTRUDER!"

All those men came charging towards him, Hiccup did the only thing he could do.

Run.

He sprinted in the direction he thought Toothless was in, and ran around several craters, some of which the dragons inside spat fire out seemingly in defence.

He rounded a corner and accidently ran into about five men who were standing in front of Toothless.

"You're gonna pay for that."

Those were the last words Hiccup heard. As he felt a sudden jab of something in his shoulder. Before he passed out though, he caught a blurred glimpse of a black mass in chains and with several tranquillizers sticking out of him.

He awoke to searing pain.

"Welcome back to the land of consciousness. Mr."

And again, alarmingly a fierce sharp sting of pain on his back. He screamed out in agony.

He was standing up. And he opened his eyes, saw that he was facing a bright red slab of wood, and then sun's brightness forced them shut again.

He couldn't move. As he regained his senses, he realised he wasn't wearing any clothes. His arms were tied up above his head, and his legs were tied too.

"What the-"

Another lash.

"OWWW!" Hiccup screamed.

Laughter. He heard many people behind him laughing.

"That's more like it boy." Taunted someone.

His back was killing him. He could feel long deep cuts to his back. There were at least three already. He realised he was being whipped.

"You're new here, ain't ya you piece of filth." Spat someone.

"I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTH- OOWWWW!" Another crack of the whip.

Blood was certainly dripping out of him like water from a mug. He had never felt such pain.

"Now that is where you are wrong boy." The same man spoke. "You were found in the restricted area where some of our food supply comes from."

"All newcomers to Myrka must come by boat, and only stay in the markets. Unless their business requires our leaders. That is our law. Surely you know that, our laws are known to most Viking tribes."

"Anyone unknown to Myrka's guards who is found in the north, east or west sides without permission or evidence that they can be in such areas, shall be punished."

"But I wasn't doi- OOWWW!"

"Don't start arguing with me boy! And what's more, you were riding a dragon! A rare type too, we haven't seen that type of dragon before. But you're not the first dragon rider we've caught. You're the second, as a matter of fact."

"WHAT HAVE YOU DON- AAHHHHH!" He screamed again as another loud crack of the whip tore into his back.

"And don't worry, your precious dragon will be fine. We'll take great care of him."

"YOU LAY ONE- OOWWWW!"

"That's enough out of you. If you keep talking, I'll whip ya twenty times! That's seven so far. Are you going to keep speaking?"

Whimpering and crying, he shook his head and forced his lips shut.

More laughter. "Good boy."

He felt a sudden jab at one of his buttocks, and he plunged into darkness.

He awoke to find himself in shade, and lying face down on the ground. Which was gravel and sandy. He felt something wet pressing into his back. Disgusting smells wafted into his nose. It smelt like sewerage.

"Owww." Hiccup moaned, feeling his painful stinging cuts in his back, he was in so much pain.

_So that wasn't a dream. I was being whipped._

"What's your name?" A voice above him spoke.

Hiccup turned his head and rested his cheek on the ground. He saw lots of people standing around, all looking at him.

"Hiccup."

All the people around him made noises of complaints and groans.

"Ohhh, I would never have guessed that." Said one, clearly upset.

"What a stupid name. Why couldn't you have a better one?" Said another.

Another gentle dab of wet clothing onto his back. It seared, and Hiccup hissed in pain.

"Ignore those idiots. They always do that to newcomers." The voice behind him said.

"How long have I been here? And can I stand up?" Hiccup asked.

"You got into this cell about a few hours ago. You won't be able to stand up. No one could possibly stand after being whipped seven times and after three hours sleep." Said the voice behind.

"Well I'm going to try." He muttered, determined.

He felt the hand with the rag being withdrawn.

Hiccup brought his hands up, and pushed.

It was searing pain, but he just managed to sit up, then push with his legs, which hurt a lot and finally stood up. His back was killing him, but he could just deal with it.

He looked around. All around him were guys. One looking as young as him, another looking at least forty. And two others, one who looked in his twenties and the other who looked in his thirties. Then he turned right around and saw the guy holding the cloth. He looked in his thirties too.

It was a wet rag, stained red and a bucket of water on the ground next to him. Looking around, he knew he was in one of the cages. Sturdy, tough and rough looking bars surrounded him.

He could see outside too, and all along he could see other cages in the distance all on this solid, gravel dirt. Although none of them had a cover over them except this one.

Hiccup noticed all of a sudden that all the guys in the room were staring at him. And even some of the guys in the other cells were too. Most with shocked, stunned faces.

"What?" He asked.

"How- how are you standing? You've been whipped seven times and you're standing, the guard said it was seven whips. I've never seen anyone stand so fast after being whipped more than three times after waking up." The guy with the rag said.

"You're not even half as buff as most of the guys in here."

"Aren't you in heaps of pain?"

"How did you get here?"

Hiccup was getting bombarded with questions.

"Look everyone just stop for a second." He held out his hands in front of him, and suddenly noticed his birthmark on his arm.

It was black, no glow or anything.

Thoughts of Toothless came rushing back to him.

"TOOTHLESS!" He screamed.

He ran to the bars, "WHERE IS TOOTHLESS?!" he started pulling and smashing his fists against the bars.

"Dude, shut up! You'll get us all in trouble!"

"But-but, Toothless…"

Hiccup sank down to the ground, on his hands and knees and bawled his eyes out. Not even caring about the pain in his back.

"How is he doing that? He's moving all over the place…" Muttered another guy.

"Who is Toothless?" Asked another guy.

Wiping his tears, he muttered, "He's my friend."

Hiccup brought his arm around and stared at the mark. "I-I'm sorry bud. I failed yo-you. I'm so-so sorry." He sobbed.

Hiccup heard many footsteps, and all the guys went behind him. Hiccup hid his arm into his chest, not wanting it to be seen.

"Where am I?" Hiccup asked, now wiping his face with his hand and sniffing. He stood up and faced the others.

"Myrka prison." The five guys said at once. "Well, the male one. They separate the boys and girls into different sections. You're in the male healing cell now. All these guys are my assistants. I'm the healer." Said the guy with the rag.

Hiccup held out his hand. "I'm Hiccup."

The guy took it and shook. "I'm Brand."

Brand was the tallest. Though his legs weren't that long, his chest and neck were. He had brown eyes. He was also quite thin.

Hiccup noticed Brand, and everyone else in the cell as well as in the other cells, were all shirtless. Most were a darkly skinned brown colour, a couple of them were white, and Hiccup was one of them. Then he suddenly wondered if he was shirtless too.

He looked down and saw he was shirtless too, but he had baggy, torn grey pants. Just like everyone else.

Brand turned around. He pointed to the youngest guy. "This is –"

Hiccup heard thundering footsteps coming towards their cage, just as someone shouted "You're standing already boy?"

He whipped around and saw a medium sized Viking wearing a sort of uniform. With two bright red stripes going vertically from his shoulder to the bottom end of his long sleeve t-shirt. Two diagonal line strokes of brown going through the middle horizontally, and the rest of the uniform was completely black.

He walked menacingly towards the cell, and Hiccup backed off a little.

"Well, time to take you to your own cell."

"Sir," began Brand, "His wounds need to heal. Please let him take this cloth so he can dab them."

"Fine." Said the guard as he began unlocking the cell.

Brand quickly thrust the rag into the bucket once more, then passed it to Hiccup.

The guard opened the caged door, and grabbed Hiccup and held him up in the air above his head as if holding a barrel.

"You're heavier than you look!" Exclaimed the guard.

He took Hiccup outside and threw him onto the ground.

Hiccup screamed in pain, having landed on his back. Bits of gravel and dirt creeping into his wounds. Though he did not release the cloth.

The guard cackled and turned around to lock the door once again and shove the keys into his pocket.

He picked Hiccup up again, this time holding him is his arms due to him thrashing around.

Hiccup tried to get out of the grip, but it was useless. He was too weak and the guard was strong. So he gave up and went still. Clutching the rag tightly.

Eventually he reached another cage, which was empty and unlocked.

He dropped Hiccup inside and locked the door.

Hiccup, overcome by pain and tiredness of thrashing around before, fell asleep.

He awoke to a freezing ground. He was curled up on the gravel in his own cell this time and shivering. For a moment he thought he was on that rocky island he woke up on yesterday.

Opening his eyes, he knew it was night time. He could see.

"Hey buddy, you okay?"

Hiccup looked towards the other cells to his left, and saw one guy, who like him, was also shirtless and wearing a pair of torn, grey pants in a cell opposite him.

"Yeah I'm great. Never felt better." Hiccup replied. Trying to keep his voice down, he hated to think what would happen if he was caught talking.

The guy gave a warm hearted chuckle.

Hiccup realised he was still holding the wet rag.

"I know this is going to sound weird, but it's what all the slaves and prisoners ask newcomers once they are put into their own cell. It's only some stupid prophecy that I swear someone made up, but we ask it anyway." The guy spoke.

Hiccup nodded and sat up, grunting in pain. He began dabbing his wounds from what he could reach with the rag.

"All right, what is it?"

The guy sighed, as if he had asked this question to people a million times.

"Apparently, there's this prophecy/legend that was made up years ago. It goes like this, 'It was said that the one who rides the dragon of night would free us from our slavery and imprisonment.'"

The guy laughed his head off.

"I know! It sounds ludicrous right? Who the hell would ride a dragon anyway?" He chuckled to himself.

Hiccup said nothing. He wasn't sure whether he should say anything.

"Now you're not answering me, you must think I'm insane." He laughed again.

Hiccup turned and looked at him.

"I don't think you're insane."

The guy smiled, "Thanks. But yeah, know anyone who rides a dragon?"

After a furious debate in Hiccups head, he finally came up with an answer.

**End of Chapter 12.**

**Hence the rating of T now. I told you I had big plans for this story. Please review, or favourite/follow. Feedback is appreciated!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

Hiccup did not want to risk his identity and goals to be spilled.

"Nope. That's the silliest thing I've ever heard of." He joked back at the guy.

"Right?" Acknowledged the guy.

Hiccup stood up painfully, and walked around the cell. The cell only had a gravel ground and nothing else.

"No toilets… I assume we just go in the cell?" He whispered to the guy.

He nodded. "Disgusting I know, but yes."

"Ugh." He mumbled. He could smell the stink of it from other people's cells.

Hiccup relieved himself, then sat down and began dabbing his wounds again. He gave a look outside his cell, the cell on his opposite side was empty. But the other had the guy in it.

"I'm Alrik. I'm twenty three years old and spent two of them in here I'm pretty sure."

Hiccup turned and looked at him. "I'm Hiccup. I'm fifteen years of age, not far off sixteen and I got here yesterday. Nice to meet you."

From what he could see of Alrik, he had very light blonde hair. His eyes were blue, and he had a small nose.

He was very thin. Hiccup wasn't sure if he was tall because he was sitting down against the bars with a large cloth on his back.

"Likewise." He responded, nodding. "Hiccup?" He added, smiling to himself. "Like that's actually your name? As in its spelt like Hiccup as if you have a hiccough in your throat?" Alrik chatted on.

"Thank you, for summing that up." Hiccup deadpanned, giving him a blank look.

Alrik laughed. "Sorry, just haven't heard of such a name."

Hiccup had enough dabbing of his wounds as it stung too much, and put the cloth down. He looked at Alrik and asked, "If you've been here for two years, can you tell me as much as you can about this place?"

Alrik looked at him, surprised. "You don't know about this place?"

"I don't know much, that's why I'm asking."

Alrik faced him and drew in a long breath.

"All right, generally newcomers stay in their cells for the first week since they arrive here. The guards come once in the morning and evening every day to give out a pitiful amount of yucky food and water to all prisoners."

"After half an hour since they gave you the meal, they come back and take the cups that had the water and the plates which have the food. The food is usually dragon, because it's the cheapest and in the largest supply. I was involved in some forest clearing a few days ago, and while I was carrying some wood I passed the prison for the dragons."

"They have lots of them, so that's why I assume they are the cheapest."

"Anyway, for the first week they keep you in the cells, then if you're willing, fit enough and well behaved, they ask you to go to the slave office for selection. Which is a big building at the entrance and exit of this prison. Also all the food exports go out through it."

"They line you and other prisoners up, for the myrkian Vikings, including residents, some soldiers and guards for us to become a slave for their use."

"If you get picked, you have to do exactly what your master says at all times without question. We are free of charge to them."

"If you don't get picked, you're thrown back here. If you disobey any order, misbehave or commit a crime, the minimal punishment is ten whip lashes and two weeks back here."

Hiccup listened intently, taking in every word.

"Why are you in here then if you were in the forest a few days ago?" Hiccup asked.

The guy sighed, and scratched his forehead. "I reached a breaking point at one stage when my master asked me to carry far more than I could possibly carry. I tried to pick up the wood he told me to, but it was too heavy. He rambled on about threatening me that I was committing a crime, so I had enough of him and I kicked him in his crotch."

Hiccup drew a smile, his first since he got here. "Good on you."

The guy smiled too. "I got twenty lashes and four weeks in here starting from yesterday. Brand gave me a cloth too, but I can't stand. I haven't even moved since yesterday. But it was worth it."

Hiccup hissed as he dabbed his wounds, "I'm so sorry man. That must be so painful. I can't imagine. I only had seven whips."

"You've had seven and you can move that much? Wow you've got some strength dude." Awed Alrik.

"Thanks…" Hiccup muttered.

"Well, I might try and get some sleep, if it's possible," said Hiccup, now lying down on his stomach and placing the cloth on his back wounds. He rested his cheek on the ground and faced towards Alrik.

"Yeah. Night Hiccup." Alrik murmured. Closing his eyes and staying in the same position.

"Night Alrik."

It took a fair while before sleep came for Hiccup, the gravel and dirt certainly wasn't a bed or comfortable in any way.

His thoughts as he lay there went to Toothless. Hoping that he was all right. Oh how Hiccup would apologise so much if- no… when, he saw him again.

_It was all my fault, I shouldn't have told Toothless to fly over again. We should have just stayed in Dyflin for longer, he was so right._

_I'm sorry bud._

_I know you're alive. I just sense it. I promise you bud, I will not let you die. _

_I will find you, and get us out of here even if it's on my last breath._

Waking up in the morning was easier than he had ever remembered. Not having any shade or comfort, the sun as well as the stinging cuts in his back and even the dirt sanding against his face and chest resulted in a speedy wake up.

"Get up bro! Get up! They'll be here any minute!"

Hiccup sat up far faster than he should have in response to the urgency of Alrik's voice. His wounds giving an excruciating crack of pain searing into his back and he muffled a wincing cry with his hand.

The cloth on his back fell to the ground, and it had dried out now. Hiccup much more slowly sat up and crossed his legs.

"Who'll be here an-" Hiccup began but was interrupted.

"The guards! They hand out food remember? Like I said! Now shh! Talking in the daytime to another prisoner is a crime!" Alrik whispered rather quickly.

Hiccup looked at him and saw that he had not moved once since the previous night. He was still sitting in the same position with his back against the bars and the cloth in-between.

He looked around and sure enough, guards with the same uniform that he saw yesterday started walking into the prison cells area with plates and cups.

The auburn haired teenager wasn't actually hungry, his last big meal was back on Dyflin, and after that the fish that Toothless caught him this time for breakfast yesterday morning.

But he figured he should eat. He had no idea how long he could be here for and if the meals are small, best to eat as much as possible.

The smells of the food wafted into his nose. It didn't smell particularly nice, as a matter of fact it smelt awful. It nearly made him sick. Strange, that scent seemed rather familiar to Hiccup…

Then, as the cage door was unlocked by a guard and the food and water were placed on the ground, he realised why it smelt familiar.

Alrik did say last night the food was dragon.

Hiccup looked at the food in disgust, it was a slab of dragon meat. The skin was rather red and the whole size of the meat was only about the size of his hand.

The fifteen year old teen wasn't certain, but pretty sure the skin matched a Monstrous Nightmare. He peeked up and looked over to Alrik, of whom the guard delivered the meal and put it next to him.

He was devouring the food. He looked up at one point and mouthed, 'ugh,' then he looked at Hiccups plate and saw it hadn't been eaten.

Alrik nodded towards his own plate and pointed at it, mouthing 'eat it, or worse.'

Hiccup looked at the meat, and picked it up with his hands. Nearly shaking with fear and disgust.

_What would Toothless think? What would any dragon think of me eating this?_

Hiccup made up his mind. He refused to eat it. He isn't hungry and he will not eat dragon.

He put the slab of meat back onto his plate.

Then he took the cup of water and drained it down his throat.

Hiccup chanced a glance at Alrik, who pointed at the plate with a worried look on his face. Mouthing 'eat it!' He shook his head in response, determined.

Within about twenty minutes, the guards came back and started collecting their plates and cups.

A particularly young looking guard in his high-twenties at least, in the normal long-sleeved uniform but looking very muscly and intimidating waltzed up to Hiccups cell, unlocked the door and looked at the plate.

"Not hungry kid?"

Hiccup shook his head.

The guard lent down and picked up his plate and cup. Then stood up.

"Then I suppose you won't need to eat for the next few days. Seeing that you're not hungry."

Hiccup didn't respond.

The guard kicked some gravel at him.

"Answer me kid!" He yelled.

"You didn't ask me a question." Replied Hiccup, stating the facts. He heard a sharp gasp intake of breath from Alrik in the nearby cell.

The guard smiled. "Aye, I didn't. Well I shall ask you one then. Would you prefer to have no food at all till you die in this cell, or would you like to have the standard dragon we give out?"

Hiccup looked right up into his face, showing no expression. "Neither."

The guard gave a cruel chuckle. "All right, no food for three days it is."

With that, the guard stepped out and locked the cell before he left to join the other guards.

The day passed slowly and painfully. The worst thing about the day was the sun. It shone very brightly onto him, burning his body. By the time it was evening and things were starting to cool down, his body was a bright pinkish red.

Twice during the day, the medic Brand who was in chains, delivered wet rags and took the old ones back to wherever he went. Either some medical place or maybe even the medic cell.

His wounds were healing, but it was taking time. He was sure those scars would stay for many months if not years.

Hiccup had chosen not to look at or talk to Alrik all day, as the guards patrolling around the cells kept looking for someone to do something wrong.

As it was approaching evening, the guards started filing out again from the gates. Each with identical plates and cups of food as earlier this day. Hiccup sat down in the cell as they approached.

The same guard that came earlier on once again came to Hiccup's cell. Only holding a cup.

He said nothing and didn't even look at Hiccup when he placed it onto the ground. He turned around and left.

Hiccup stood up and walked over to the cup of water and drank it. Then walked back to his original spot and sat down.

He glanced at Alrik, who was eating his food. He looked at Hiccup a few times, with worried looks.

As Hiccup sat there, waiting for the guards to come back, he began drawing in the gravel. Just random circles and shapes with his fingers, before he started going more elaborate. He ended up drawing the twin mountains to east of Myrka. Eventually he even drew Toothless.

That great toothless expression of his always brought a smile to him. His other characteristics too, like his floppy ears. Thinking on that thought he wasn't sure how many ears Toothless actually had.

Then there were his eyes, those large magnificent acidic green eyes of his. Showing so much intelligence and emotion.

Getting distracted, he began to hear footsteps. He looked up and saw the uniformed guards returning to collect the stuff.

Hiccup wiped out the drawings in the gravel and waited expectantly for the guard to return.

He unlocked Hiccup's cell, and picked up the empty cup.

"Thirsty but not hungry." Stated the guard, smiling at him.

Hiccup nodded. Expressionless.

"See you tomorrow kid."

With that, the guard left and locked the cage again.

As the evening passed, Alrik was fidgeting constantly with the gravel, drawing and then wiping out things.

As it gradually fell into night time, Alrik began making scraping noises in the gravel now, obviously desperate to talk to him.

Having a quick glance around, keeping his ears listening and his eyes open, there was no sign of any guard around.

"It's all right Alrik." Hiccup whispered, just in case. Looking at him.

Alrik snapped his head up to look at him.

"You are either brave and determined, or very stupid."

Hiccup laughed.

Alrik however, looked quite serious.

"Hiccup, you may not approve of eating dragon, but you're gonna get real sick if you don't eat. Prisoners are only given dragon, you won't get anything else."

Hiccup sighed. Realising he was right. He would have to eat soon.

"Okay." He gave in.

There was a silence for quite a while. Hiccup began thinking about what he saw when he was flying over Myrka on Toothless.

He remembered he had seen a massive arena like stadium. He wondered what that was used for, if it was used at all.

"Hey Alrik, is there anything else you can tell me about Myrka?"

"There's a little more I can say, yes. Actually I should have mentioned it before. You probably don't know, but there's an arena towards the north of the markets. But just before the castle."

"It's the fighting arena. Myrkians often gather into the arena to watch prisoners fight soldiers. It's done to see who the best fighter is and the soldiers always win. I guess Myrka's army gets bored of waiting for some tribe to attack. They also get sick of patrolling the castle and markets I suppose. So they practice their sword fighting on prisoners."

"Only selected prisoners can go. That means when selection day comes at the end of the week, which is four days from now, prisoners that are selected to become slaves are eligible to go. Your master will decide if you're going. Generally you won't have a choice if you're told to go or not."

"They usually do it one at a time. The prisoners almost always lose of course because they are not allowed to harm the soldier. The soldier can harm but not kill the prisoner. If one person disarms the other and is in a winning position, meaning the one on the ground is defenceless and can be killed, the person holding the other at his mercy wins."

"I do not know what happens to the prisoner if he or she wins. I think the old prisoner who works with Brand in the medical cell said that he has known one person who did win. But he said he never saw the person again after whosoever won." Alrik finished.

"Interesting…" Hiccup spoke, taking it all in again.

Alrik looked at him.

"You're not considering going into that, are you?"

Hiccup smiled. "Maybe. But listen Alrik, I've got one more question to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Do you know anyone called Kormak?"

Alrik tilted his head and brought his hand up to his chin as if in deep thought.

"The name sounds familiar, but I don't know who it is. Why do you ask? Is he a friend?"

Hiccup nodded. "Something of that sort hopefully, yeah."

The twenty-three year old looked at him confusedly. "Hopefully something of that sort? What in Thor's name do you mean?"

"Never mind. It doesn't matter. Just let me know if you find out anything about him."

Alrik gave him a suspicious look. "Where are you from? You seem different than everyone I've met."

_Oh no. Keep it together Hiccup. Don't spill your identity and goals here._

Hiccup waved a hand in the air, dismissing it. "Don't worry about it."

"No! Why have you asked so many questions? You sound as if you almost want to be here. Are you a spy or something trying to find out how things work?" When Alrik said that, he actually looked excitedly hopeful. He obviously would like the idea of Myrka being overthrown.

_Who wouldn't? _Hiccup thought.

Far away from the prison cells, in a hidden underground cavern connected to the arena, the dragon of the night lay awake.

Strapped in chains, muzzled and only able to breathe through his nose, he was deep in thought.

All thoughts of his pain he was and still is going through, the lashes from the whips, and most of all, the destruction of one of his tailfins which was sawed off his tail, were gone.

He had more important things to think about. The restoration of his flight would have to come later.

He had seen it. Since the first time he had laid eyes on it, he knew exactly what it was. He would recognise it anywhere.

_This is going to be tough. _Thought Toothless.

_I know uniting the Six is our mission. But this is totally unexpected. I see what Gothi said had a deeper meaning that I had anticipated._

_I remember Hiccup saying that Gothi said to "gather and unite the Six." So, that must mean what I think it means. Great ice of Bewilderbeast, this will be hard. But with Hiccup's help it'll be a little easier._

What Toothless was thinking about is something that will be of great importance to Hiccup and himself.

The manager of the Viking battles in the arena, and also the manager of the weapon making forge, is a young woman.

Toothless was introduced to her when the soldiers discovered his extraordinary fire power. And what it can do to help forge weapons. The soldiers wanted their weapons to be welded from the Night Furies fire.

But the thing about her that had kept Toothless thinking for hours, was a symbol on her arm.

It was a dragon mark. And not just any dragon mark. It was the mark of the Night species rival.

**End of Chapter 13.**

**Please review, or favourite/follow. Feedback is very much appreciated!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14:**

Hiccup managed to pass off the talk with Alrik with a few simple remarks. Such as "No, of course not. I'm not a spy or anything. Who on earth would want to be here?"

After that, he fell asleep.

He woke up starving. And just in time in the morning for the guards to bring out their food and water.

The morning was cold. Far colder than the previous. The sun had disappeared behind a band of clouds as it rose over the mountains to the east.

It was windy too, which did not help the temperature rise. The wind blew dirt and dust all over the place, which was rather unwelcome. It wasn't blowing too badly, but enough to make someone uncomfortable.

The clouds didn't look promising though. Some appearing rather ominous in the distance. _Though some rain would be nice, that meant more water to drink._

As he was looking up and around at the sky, he suddenly heard the cell door being unlocked.

Once again, the same guard came in and placed a cup of water onto the ground and left.

He drank it quickly, and it quenched his thirst a little. But now he was getting very hungry.

After a while the guards came back and collected the stuff then left once again.

Brand dropped in not long after, giving Hiccup a new cloth and taking his old one. "You're healing very fast. Though the scars will stay with you for months. So this cloth will be your last one, make sure you use it. I'll be back tomorrow morning to take it." He whispered into Hiccup's ear as he checked his back wounds.

He also did the same thing with Alrik, who still had not moved once since Hiccup first saw him.

Alrik had to move a little to show Brand his wounds, and he muffled a scream of pain the very moment he moved. Brand whispered some healing advice to Alrik then moved on to the next cell.

As the morning lengthened, so too did the clouds. They kept the sunlight from reaching the ground, and they darkened more. It seemed as the morning wore on, it wasn't getting brighter or darker. Because the clouds were getting darker and the sun was getting higher and brighter.

Until eventually, a crack of thunder signalled the sky at around midday to bring its watery haven down upon the ground.

Rejoicing in the rain, Hiccup leapt up and danced around as much as he could in the water. Drinking in as much as his stomach would let him.

The water stung his back, but also seemed to flush out the dried blood and clean his wounds.

Alrik however, was biting his hand to try to stop himself yelling in pain. The water must be like dropping sand into his wounds. He looked in so much pain. Hiccup felt sorry for him.

Hiccup was sure he wouldn't have coped with the whippings, or the aggressive handling if he hadn't had dragon strength and stamina in his muscles. He would have suffered so much worse he was certain of it.

He couldn't possibly feel more thankful towards his loving friend Toothless at this moment.

Once again thinking about him, he was hoping that he was all right. Hoping nothing too bad had happened to him. Hiccup was missing him terribly.

But thinking of the Night, also reminded Hiccup he had a mission to do. A task to accomplish.

He remembered Gothi saying 'Do not be dissuaded of your goal.' He needed to do what needed to be done.

When as Alrik said it, the selection day comes, which is the day after tomorrow, he must try and get himself a master and somehow ask someone, anyone he can if they know anyone called Kormak. He must try and find him.

Hiccup remembered what Asan said back on Dyflin. He said that Polk, Kormak's brother, misses Kormak terribly. Drifa would be missing him too.

_Don't worry Polk, I will get your brother back. No matter what it takes._

"Enjoying the rain there are we?"

Hiccup glanced around, he couldn't see any guards anywhere.

He then turned to look at Alrik, who was shuddering. Probably from two things, his wounds and the cold temperature. The rain certainly wouldn't warm anything up.

"Well…" Began Hiccup, "It's a great way to fill up your thirst."

"True. A-and a g-good way to f-freeze to death." Alrik stammered. "I still don't know how the rain isn't stinging your wounds."

Hiccup brought the drenching cloth over to his back to continue dabbing whilst it still rained on him.

At the same time he faced the sky, closed his eyes and opened his mouth wide to catch as much water as he could. It was wonderful getting loads of water into his system. He kept swallowing and swallowing, till he felt full.

He didn't even feel that hungry anymore.

"It is stinging. It's just healing quickly." Hiccup replied.

Alrik made a scoff of disbelief. Of which Hiccup ignored.

"Hey, I thought it was a crime to talk to another prisoner during the day?" Hiccup asked.

Alrik coughed. Before saying, "It is, but when it's raining the guards leave to go inside."

Back in the cavern underneath the ground next to the arena in Myrka, Toothless was chained and muzzled still. And when asked, he was blowing out purple fire through his nose.

"So you're planning to co-operate today? Good boy." Said the manager of the forge.

She was standing next to Toothless, watching him carefully as he blew fire onto weapons for welding by the several workers there. One of which suddenly put his hand up to signify to stop.

"Stop."

Toothless stopped blowing as requested. And his eyes once again went straight to the mark on the young woman's arm.

Suddenly he smelt a new scent entering the room, and rather thundering footsteps into the cavern from a hidden stairway.

Immediately, everyone including Vali stopped what they were doing, kneeled and bowed to the new person, and they all chanted, "Hail Harun!"

"Continue." He spoke in a rather jagged, quiet voice. Toothless turned his head to look at the newcomer, and saw he had some rather unusual features about him.

He was covered in scars. Several going right across his face. His clothing was black, and had a cloak around him that appeared to be a cloak of dragon skin. Toothless was now beginning to understand how clothing worked as Hiccup had tried to explain.

He had a large sword strapped to his belt, and one hand was on the handle while the other was hidden in behind the cloak.

His face was rather tanned brown, and his eyes were a fierce red. His hair was in dreadlocks and was coloured a jet black. He was larger than any man Toothless had ever seen. Tall, tough and intimidating.

He walked slowly over towards the manager.

All the other people working in the forge kept doing their work, and some kept occasionally giving a nervous glance up to look at Harun.

"Ok Vali, more fire please." Came a request from a welding man, holding an already partially orange hot sword.

_So her name is Vali. _Thought Toothless.

Vali was just standing next to Toothless, awaiting for requests like that from the welders.

Toothless hadn't really given her much of a look to observe her features, the only thing he'd looked at was the mark of the Spike Bolt on her arm, his species rival.

Vali looked quite young, if not only perhaps a year or two older than Hiccup. She had much darker brown hair than Hiccups, a large-ish nose and dark green eyes. Her clothes appeared to be almost into her skin as they looked tight. Her trousers were brown and her shirt was black.

"Now dragon, fire." Spoke Vali. Getting Toothless out his thoughts.

He obliged and breathed in before exhaling fire through his nose at the sword.

The sword instantly turned a purple colour, and when it was right the welder took the sword away and began doing his work.

"Stop." Vali said again.

The Night Fury stopped, and rested his head on the ground. His eyes turning once again to look at Harun and Vali.

"So this is the dragon you caught?" Harun asked, speaking to Vali. Still not stopping he kept on walking, circling around her. "The one that you think made the roar?"

Vali turned and faced him. "Yes father."

Harun turned and looked at Toothless, observing his whole body. Now walking around him, his expression completely blank. He stared, emotionless.

Toothless let out a low growl.

"Good work." He suddenly said, now looking at Vali.

She nodded, "Thank you sire."

With that he stopped circling Toothless and gradually walked back up the stairs of whence he came.

Toothless looked back at the mark now, on the girls arm.

Vali looked around, not facing her father anymore and turned to Toothless and noticed he was staring at the mark.

"What?!" She whispered aggressively. Throwing her arm out in front of her as if to show she had nothing there, which wasn't true.

The Night stared at it, and made a nod at it then looked back at Vali's eyes.

"What about the mark?" She asked, now sounding as if she already knew the answer. "I know what it is stupid dragon. I'll be getting myself one of those dragons on my arm, and killing it with my bare hands!" She boasted proudly, smiling and throwing her arms into the air.

Toothless shook his head.

_Good luck with that._ He thought.

Back in the prison cells in Myrka's east, Hiccup was standing in mud.

"Well, this is fun." Hiccup muttered, walking around the now squishy ground below him. His feet going nearly ankle deep as he pushed his feet again and took them out of the soggy ground.

The guards were nowhere to be seen.

Alrik coughed a few times. "Yes, it gets quite squishy after rain here." He still hadn't moved, sitting in the same position as always, his back against the cloth on the bars. His hands resting by his sides, and legs spread out in front of him.

A couple hours had passed since the rain, and the clouds had disappeared so fast as if ashamed of what they had done.

_How am I going to sleep in this mud? _Hiccup wondered.

Hiccup sat down, the mud seeping into his grey, tear ridden shorts. "Does it rain often here?"

Before Alrik could answer though, yelling cries of pain and jumbled words came through the air. Followed by two guards who were holding someone.

"DON'T PUT ME IN A CELL! JUST KILL ME ALREADY!" He screeched.

Hiccup stood up, and saw the guards approaching. They each were supporting the same guy who clearly looked in his mid-twenties, he was rather muscly but had many scars on his body, and blood gushing out of a wound in his leg.

Hiccup suddenly lost his breath. What is that on his arm?

_WHAT IS THAT ON HIS ARM?!_

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Alrik had yelled out, staring angrily at the guards ahead. Clenching his fists aggressively and pointing at them.

One guard dropped the guy, and turned to face Alrik, "Would you like another twenty whips?! I'll be more than happy to deliver!" The other guard was still holding the guy, who was standing up and trying to get out of his grip.

"Hey! Bring that guy into my cell!"

Both the guards turned to look at Hiccup. Who now was standing up at the edge of the cell and holding onto the bars.

"Excuse me?"

"You know what I said! Please." Hiccup pleaded.

The guards looked at one another. Hiccup could hear them whispering to each other.

"Why?" They both asked.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Because I want to talk to him."

"It is a crime to talk to another pr-"

"I know," Interrupted Hiccup, as he heard Alrik gasp with surprise, "But you can give me another five lashes if you let me talk to him." He offered.

The guards whispered to each other once again, Hiccup could hear one saying, "Well, we are running out of cells. If we keep putting one in each we'll run out very soon. Shall we just dump the filth in with him?"

"I guess so. But what about the lashes? Should we deliver?"

"Of course, we'll give him another seven. So he learns not to commit crimes. But we'll do it later. I want some food, and to get outta these boots."

"Agreed."

The guards stopped whispering and approached Hiccup's cell, holding the guy still.

"All right, fine you can have him in your cell. But your punishment will be tomorrow morning." One of them spoke.

Hiccup nodded as he unlocked the door, and the guy was shoved in and landed frontwards onto the mud.

The guards chuckled and left the scene.

"You okay?" Hiccup asked him, now picking him up and leaning him against the bars. He didn't have any lashes on his back, but he had a wound on his left leg. Blood was still gushing out there.

The guy just moaned, his eyes opening and closing.

Hiccup got his own cloth and started to put pressure onto the wound to stop the blood coming out.

The guy screamed in pain, before gradually relaxing and stopped screaming.

As Hiccup was doing so, he looked at the mark on the guy's wrist. It was on his right arm.

Hiccup recognised the mark as a Thunderdrum dragon. The flat head, pointed teeth and small holes for a nose. The mark wasn't glowing or other, just plain black.

So this guy must be one of the Six, his dragon mark being a Thunderdrum.

Hiccup was pretty sure the mark wouldn't be activated yet. He highly doubted this guy had befriended a dragon or even found his dragon bond. But of course he needed to ask.

"Why did you do that?" Alrik whispered as loudly and quietly at the same time as he could.

"Because I had to." Hiccup responded, not looking at him.

"Why… did you do…that?" The guy Hiccup was healing suddenly moaned.

"Because I had to." He repeated.

"What's your name?" Hiccup asked, observing his features now as he still kept a firm hand on the bleeding site.

He had a rather tanned brown skin, scars along his body like Alrik but seemed to be fairly strong looking. Very tall too.

"Kor—ouch! Kormak."

Hiccup sighed in relief. And Alrik gasped in surprise. "My name is Hiccup. It's an honour to meet you."

Kormak extended a shaking hand, and Hiccup accepted and they shook hands.

He opened his eyes completely, and looked at Hiccup. "What do you mean you had to do that?"

Hiccup took the cloth off Kormak's wound, and the blood appeared to have stopped coming out. He held the cloth in his left hand.

Taking a deep breath, and knowing Alrik was watching, Hiccup pointed to the Thunderdrum dragon mark on Kormak's arm.

Kormak turned, and saw what he was pointing at. He shrugged. "What about it? Just a birthmark." He muttered.

Hiccup smiled at him, and shook his head. He then raised his arm to show Kormak his own mark. Night's mark.

He looked at it, and then back at his own. Repeating the process.

"They are dragon marks. Both of ours are different though. They mean we must take out the dragon and kill it right?"

Hiccup didn't answer.

"Right?"

Hiccup shook his head again, and smiled.

Kormak's eyes widened. He began to look confused.

Hiccup looked at him right into his eyes. "They mean so much more. You have no idea what these marks signify. I'll tell you tonight, when there's no chance of us being heard by anyone else."

Kormak looked worried. "What do you mean no chance of being heard? We're in the middle of a prison surrounded by other prisoners and guards?"

Hiccup shook his head, and lowered his voice so even Alrik couldn't hear. "Hopefully, if my plan should work, we will not be staying in prison tonight."

_I am scrapping my original plan to wait for selection day. I shall escape this prison with Kormak tonight. I hope._

**End of Chapter 14.**

**Apologies for later update, been rather busy. Got a longer chapter on the way though…**

**Please review, or favourite/follow. Feedback is always very much appreciated!  
>And thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! :)<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

The following morning, in Myrka's castle…

"WHAT!"

"I'm so sorry sir. We just don't know how he did it! It was like he had some sort of abnormal strength and speed!"

Several guards were kneeling in front of King Harun in his castle in Myrka's north. Harun was sitting in his chair, his red eyes blazing with fury as he glared down at the guards below him.

"Search everywh-"

"We already have, sir!" Interrupted one of the guards.

The King snapped his head and turned his eyes to face the guard who had spoken. "You dare interrupt me? You will be sorry for that."

Very quickly Myrka's soldiers came into the hallway and seized the guard who had spoken and took him away. Now there were two guards left.

"You two. Have you searched all the prison area for them?" Harun asked, now looking back at them.

"Yes sir. We found nothing."

"Right. SOLDIERS!" Harun yelled, his voice booming around the hall.

Five soldiers wearing a similar uniform to the guards, but with these uniforms there were no two brown line streaks going horizontally. It was just a plain black t-shirt with two red stripes going vertically down from each shoulder. Suddenly they came rushing in.

They kneeled to the ground and bowed to their King, "Hail Harun! What is it you require sire?" They asked simultaneously.

"Get any off duty soldier and ones that are doing lesser important duties, and get them to patrol Myrka's Markets. And the East and South sides too. Tell the soldiers around this castle to patrol double time and report anything suspicious. Also double the security surrounding the black dragon in the forge."

"Our first dragon rider we captured, escaped all those years ago, do not let this one do the same. He is probably somewhere in the markets, the housed area or heading to the docks. Go!"

"Yes sire and hail Harun!" They shouted together and saluted him, then standing up and they both sprinted off to complete their orders.

Harun turned to the prison guards.

"As for you two, tell the other guards to patrol the prisons double time. Double the punishments for any crime and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Off with you!" He ordered.

"Yes sire and hail Harun!" And they too saluted, then rushed off.

Harun leant back in his chair, watching the guards leave.

"You will regret trying to escape. Dragon rider." Harun murmured to himself. As he clutched his sword's handle tightly in his grip.

The previous evening in Myrka's prison…

"What in Thor's name are you talking about? There's no way we could possibly get out of here. Besides why would you want to rescue me?" He asked, looking downright confused.

"Because," Hiccup began, "You are extremely important to me. I'm going to need your help in the future. And nothing is impossible."

Kormak let out a snort. "This is impossible." He muttered under his breath.

A minute of silence passed, before Alrik suddenly broke it. "You know, he's right."

Both Hiccup and Kormak turned to face him, looking very confused. "What?" They both said.

Alrik turned and faced them from his cell. "I underestimated this guy, Hiccup, when I met him. He's so small and looks like a light breeze could blow him over. But appearances can be deceiving. I learnt he has got a lot of strength and determination. He reminds me of my father. Before he was killed, he told me some words that are burned into my memory."

"Sometimes it's the people no one imagines anything of, who do the things, that no one, can imagine."

Hiccup was speechless. Stunned by the words.

Kormak looked at him, and smiled. Hiccup looked back and smiled too.

At last, he turned around again to face Alrik. "Thank you Alrik. That was touching."

He nodded and smiled. "Now you've just got to figure out how to break out of a massive prison."

Hiccup chuckled. "I've got a few ideas. Also, by the way, I'm sorry Alrik but I can't-"

"No no. You do what you have to do. You don't have to get me out." He dismissed.

Hiccup sighed. "I'm sorry, I can't get you out yet."

Alrik just nodded. "Do what's necessary."

Kormak was now so excited. "I'll get to see my brother again! Polk must be in bad shape. And mum. Oh mum…" He deflated, looking down at the ground sadly.

"Hey…" Hiccup put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be all right. I'm sorry but we won't be escaping Myrka yet. Yes we'll hopefully get out of the prison area, but I have a couple things to do here before we leave."

Kormak looked at him. Hiccup noticed that his eyes were a hazel colour. Just like Polk's.

"I hope you explain all of what the hell you're talking about soon." Kormak replied.

Hiccup smiled. "I will. Now can you tell me why and how you were taken from Dyflin?"

"How does he know I'm from Dyflin…" Kormak muttered under his breath, facing the ground. He looked up to face Hiccup and took a deep breath in.

"The high majority of food for most tribes is bought and traded in the markets. So nearby tribes depend on Myrka to feed their own. So they travel to Myrka and go into the markets to get and trade their food."

"The Myrkians always travel to most tribes in the surrounding islands and archipelagos too. However, Myrka does travel around to almost all the tribes nearby once every two months not for trade, but for selection. To seize one person except the chief, and bring them back to become slaves, or gladiators for the arena."

"All these people here in the prisons are slaves from other tribes that Myrka has collected for many, many years and are suffering punishment for a crime. The rest of the slaves are out doing their masters bidding. Myrka's residents sometimes commit crimes too. It's not just the slaves."

"So when half of Myrka's fleet arrives at your island, you know they are here for the selection of one person. And once they decide who they want, there is no refusing. If the tribe refuses, Myrka destroys their home and kills everyone. All tribes around here are outnumbered and outmatched so they have no choice but to oblige."

"However, I know there is one tribe that does not come to Myrka for anything, and Myrka does not go to them. The tribes are enemies, but neither is willing to attack the other. Myrka has power, force and numbers. But the other tribe, The Bog Burglars, have strategy, they are smart and determined, stealthy and quick.

"So that's what happened to me. I was chosen to come here. I've been a slave for a year, and this time I committed my first crime, which was forget one thing on a list of food items for my master. He cut my leg with a knife here, and he sent me to prison for a week and ordered me not to be whipped or healed, so I could bleed."

"But thankfully you saved me and persuaded the guards to have me in here. And for that I'm so grateful."

Kormak hugged him, and Hiccup smiled into his shoulder and patted him on the back. Kormak began to cry.

"I just m-miss my little brother, I always took c-care of him. I miss my family so mu-much." He stammered, as tears began to fall and drip down Hiccup's back.

"I know you do." Hiccup replied. Feeling moved by the emotion and affection of Kormak. He kept patting him reassuringly on his back.

Over the time they had been talking, the sun had dropped further down in the sky, and things were starting to darken.

Hiccup and Kormak released each other. "How's the wound? Feel any better?" The auburn haired teen asked.

Kormak bent down and examined the knife cut. "Yeah, feels better and looks better. Thank you. But if I touch it or nudge it, it's bound to start bleeding again."

Hiccup now examined it too, "Yeah probably. Best not to touch it then."

Hiccup suddenly heard lots of footsteps.

"Guys! They're coming!"

Alrik had whispered as loudly as he could to Hiccup and Kormak, as the guards began filing out of the gates holding the usual food and water.

Kormak stood straight up as if about to make a salute.

"Calm down. Let me handle this." Hiccup whispered. "Stand next to me." Kormak instantly did so. They were standing in the middle of the cell.

"Good luck!" Alrik whispered.

"Hey Alrik, one last thing to say to you." Hiccup started, saying it quickly. "I hope to make the prophecy come true. I am the one who rides the dragon of the night. I'm the Night rider. My mark," Hiccup showed his wrist in Alrik's direction, "is Night's mark. I will try to free the slaves of Myrka, end the corruption and evil of the century. I make that a promise."

Hiccup nodded to him, as Alrik's & Kormak's jaw's dropped. He quickly lent down and picked up a handful of mud.

The guards approached, and finally the usual chap unlocked Hiccup's cell at last and walked in holding a cup and no plate.

As soon as he bent down to place the cup on the ground, Hiccup threw the mud straight at the guard's head.

It splattered onto his hair, and he staggered backwards, swearing and raging in the cage's door's frame a little, spluttering.

Hiccup seized his chance, ran forward and push-kicked him in his chest with his right bare foot. The motion sent the guard yelling in pain and being almost blasted backwards. Sent sprawling onto his back and sliding along the muddy ground. The dragon strength in his muscles acting almost like a solid wall.

Half stunned at what he had done in a matter of a second, he ran back to Kormak who looked like he was in shock, and tripped him over and caught him in his hands.

He carried Kormak out of the cell, and now he was really in shock. He stared awed and terrified at Hiccup's face at the same time.

At that moment all the other guards from the other cells locked the doors they were currently attending, and then began charging at Hiccup.

The guards were no match in speed for Hiccup, running at least three times faster than everybody else. He zoomed ahead as if he was just riding the wind and avoiding obstacles. But the gravel hurt his feet, but he would have to put up with it.

Hiccup ran towards the gates where the guards came out, and occasionally kicking and knocking any guard out of his way with his feet and shoulders.

"PRISONER ES-" Before the guard had even finished his sentence, Hiccup had reached him as he was closing the gate, lent the top of his head down and smashed his head into the guard's chest at his full speed of running. The force hurt his head & neck a little, but he paid it no mind.

The guard was sent flying into the distance, and crashed into a rock protruding out of the ground.

Now past the gate, which was now closed, facing the entrance and exit to the building of the prison, he sprinted to the door and smashed it open.

The door flung off its hinges and was sent pelting across the room, till it hit a guard standing at the other end, who screamed in fright. Hiccup wasted no time and ran to the nearest exit. Sprinting out and leaving dumbfounded guards behind him.

Now recognising where he was, he ran forward still clutching Kormak in his arms. He knew where he was going. He was now running along the dirt road track from the prison that led to Myrka Markets.

He saw the sign which said 'Myrka Markets' on a wooden panel hanging over the entrance, and he sprinted in underneath it. Kormak's brown hair waving in the wind.

The markets were nearly empty. He stopped running and stood still, examining his surroundings. There were stalls, wheel barrows, crates and things everywhere. But he couldn't see many people at all. Only a couple moving in the distance along a laneway.

He sprinted to the right, hoping to run away from the people.

He passed hundreds of stalls, supply stores and everything in between. Hiccup was hoping to run to the housing area.

But as he ran, he suddenly noticed something. There were posters on every available pole, wheelbarrow, and even some on the ground. As he ran, he couldn't read them that much, but after time of running and seeing the same thing. He could make out a few words.

'For the first time ever, you can join!' Is all he could read due to the speed he was going.

Kormak was still in his hands and looking like he had passed out. As Hiccup kept running he took a glance down to check Kormak's leg.

It was bleeding again, the motion must have got his blood pumping, or he might have accidently knocked it. It was dripping out of his wound and onto Hiccup's shorts and bare legs.

He looked up again and slowed his running down. He was thankful it was night time. There were no people around his current position yet.

Then either by chance or luck, there was a cloth on the ground ahead.

He picked it up and saw that it looked more like a brown dish cloth used to clean dishes, but that didn't matter. He needed to stop the bleeding now.

He pressed the cloth against his wound as he sat down. Kormak let out a grunt of pain.

Hiccup knew he couldn't stay where he was, so he stood up and picked Kormak up again. Keeping his right hand pressed against the wound in his left leg.

He started running again. Continuing his running northwards.

Suddenly he noticed someone ahead of him, so he ran faster and right past the person as fast as he could. Not even looking at who it was.

Hiccup heard a shout behind him but he was going so fast that he didn't even catch the words.

At last after all the running, the markets finally came to a stop and there was another dirt path ahead of him. This one was empty too, luckily. Up ahead he could see houses. So that must be the homes of Myrka's Vikings.

He ran straight towards it. Eager and hopeful to find a house that was empty.

Going through the entrance, he ran forwards for a distance, following the straight road.

On his sides, small pathways lead to houses on his left and right. It was quite extraordinary to see everything lined up so perfectly. He noticed that every house had a number just above the front door.

He wasn't sure which one to take, all the houses looked exactly the same.

Then suddenly he saw a sign outside one of the houses. He skidded to a halt and turned around to go back towards it.

In front of the house was a wooden sign with the writing sketched onto it, saying 'vacant.' The house's number was one hundred and ninety five.

Cheering with joy in his mind, he kicked over the sign and picked it up. Then he approached the door and opened it.

Closing it behind him, he examined the place.

It was a decent size, though rather smaller than his own house back on Berk.

It had a fireplace with wood in it to his right, with two chairs around it. Straight ahead of him was a table with four chairs around it. Further straight ahead led to a kitchen with cutlery, plates and bowls and cups.

To his left were stairs that were against the wall leading up to what must be bedrooms.

Hiccup dropped the sign and kicked it towards the fireplace.

He then walked up the stairs to find one open room, with two beds. With sheets and pillows.

Relieved, he walked over to a bed and placed Kormak down. Thanks to Hiccup's marvellous eyesight, he could clearly see the wound now on Kormak's leg. He kept some pressure on it, and the blood eventually stopped seeping out.

Tired now after all the running, Hiccup tucked Kormak into the bed, but first made sure that his bleeding was stopped. He was asleep now for sure, Hiccup noticed his breathing was no longer erratic but slow and relaxed.

Then Hiccup realised they needed clothes. Seeing that they were both shirtless and had only had torn prison shorts on.

He turned around to see if there was a wardrobe or something that had clothing.

Fortunately there was.

Hiccup went over to it and opened it.

He pulled out some grey trousers and a brown shirt.

He took them over to Kormak and pulled back the sheets. Hiccup closed his eyes in respect as he took off Kormak's shorts, now knowing he was completely naked.

Hiccup had to open them to pick up the trousers and kept them open so he could see what he was doing. He dressed Kormak into the clothes which just fit him, but were a little oversized.

Realising this would be a big problem for himself too, he went back to the wardrobe and found two belts.

He fastened one around Kormak's waist, pulled the sheets over him then went back to the wardrobe to find his own clothes. He managed to first find a large black shirt and a skinny dark green pair of trousers too.

He took off his shorts and placed them next to the ones that he took off Kormak.

The trousers fit well but he still put the belt on just in case. As he placed the shirt over his head, he realised that this shirt was definitely way too big for him. He laughed to himself as he saw the end of the shirt going past his thighs.

"Oh well, this'll do." He whispered to himself.

He then saw two pairs of boots, and got them out and tried them on. They both fitted him, and he took one pair over to Kormak and they fitted him too. So he went back to the wardrobe and placed the boots on the floor.

Closing the wardrobe, he hopped into the other bed himself, hopeful of finally getting a proper and comfortable sleep.

He had begun forgetting about his wounds on his back, so as he lay down, it painfully reminded him they were still there, stinging badly. He groaned a little in pain and turned on his side so the pain stopped.

Now alone to think to himself, he thought about what was going to happen tomorrow.

Kormak was going to ask so many questions and he would have to answer and tell him truthfully. Now that he had gotten out of prison, he had to stay out. And keep Kormak out. He had three main goals.

He knew that the guards knew he was caught riding Toothless. So the security around him must have been increased. So it would be too risky going to find him yet.

So, Hiccup's main priorities were, getting himself and Kormak back into good physical shape and healing the wounds. This included staying out of prison, finding sufficient food and water for them both. Keeping Kormak safe and maintaining a low profile.

On that thought he realised he should wake up early tomorrow so he could go and find some food and water. Bring it back for himself and Kormak.

His second priority was to establish the safest escape route out of Myrka should the opportunity arise. Along with that, he could not leave without Toothless and Kormak.

He remembered Asan, the chief of Dyflin, saying that they got their food supply from their main trading partner, and Kormak said most tribes get their food from Myrka. So he could possibly hope for something to turn out in that respect.

His third priority was to find Toothless. That was the most important thing, but Hiccup knew he could not leave without Kormak either otherwise this would all have been for nothing.

Fourthly and lastly, he knew there was another person in Myrka who had a dragon mark. The last person in this retched land, was another one of the Six. If he could escape with them all, then he could rejoice in the fact that three of the Six have been found.

After that would be an interesting turn of events. He would have to help Kormak and whoever was the other one, find their dragon. Kormak's mark is a Thunderdrum. Perhaps the best place to get a Thunderdrum, would be Dyflin itself. Asan said there are many around their island. Plus the one in the forest might still be there.

Then would be the fact of finding a dragon for the other person who is one of the Six. He wondered what mark and dragon that persons could be.

When that is complete, then comes the really hard part. Find the last three of the Six. But in Hiccup's mind that time is ages away, he has to focus on the present and he knew that.

The following morning…

He was awoken by the smell.

_Ohhh what is that lovely smell…. _He thought.

Suddenly he was brought back to his senses. A spot on his left leg was sore and stinging. He was lying down on something really comfortable, and he was wearing…clothes?

He opened his eyes and sat up, realising he was in completely unfamiliar surroundings.

The windows shone light in from the skies above. He looked around the room and saw another bed directly opposite his own with dirt marks all over it. The sheets looked carelessly thrown over the bed.

Memories of last night came rushing through him, he was carried by Hiccup from the prison!

_Where am I now? _Kormak thought.

The smell again attracted his nose, and he stood up.

His brown shirt fell down a little as Kormak examined the clothes, they were a little big on him, but certainly were a lot better than muddy filthy torn shorts. He tightened the belt a little around his grey trousers.

_So Hiccup must have dressed me._

Blood rushed to his face and ears in embarrassment.

"Come on down, breakfast is served." Called a slightly familiar voice downstairs.

Kormak gradually walked down the stairs, limping. Breathing in the sweet smell of cooking food.

Hiccup heard Kormak's light footsteps coming downstairs. So he rushed and took the cooking meat out of the pan above the fire, and placed it onto the plates.

Once done, he walked over to the table and placed two plates opposite each other, next to cups of water.

Kormak stared shocked at the sight.

"Come on." Hiccup gestured to the food. "It's not going to eat itself, hurry up and dig in."

Hiccup sat down, took his boots off and Kormak slowly followed suit.

They began to dig into the food, and Kormak suddenly realised something.

"This isn't dragon! What is it?!" He asked excitedly, chewing on it slowly.

"Beef." Hiccup answered with his mouth full. Also twisting his lips into a smile.

Kormak looked so grateful. "Thank you so much."

Hiccup nodded in appreciation. As he dug into it, he was so thrilled he had managed to get some beef. But that was not all he had gotten.

Earlier this morning he had snuck out really early among all the other Vikings and entered the markets which were completely bustling with people.

Hiccup realised one simple and easy fact for him, one that made him really appreciate his small size. Staying stealthy and pick pocketing was so easy when in such tightly packed corners. He had pick pocketed many people, and for the first time he was introduced to these small metal things, that apparently Vikings called money.

He had never known of such a thing on Berk, everything was simple and people shared, there was no such thing as money as far as he knew.

All he had to do was pick pocket people for money, and do what the store people say, is 'buy' the food. In other words, he had to give some money to the storemen and in return for the amount of food he wanted.

So he did that, and got plenty to last for days. However, he had to be careful to try and avoid the men in uniforms. He had seen many familiar people who were wearing similar uniforms to the guards in prison. He guessed that these people were soldiers, or the market guards or something.

Getting the water was more difficult. There were queues of which people had to line up to get barrels of water. The barrels were heavy, even for Hiccup. He could only carry one, and he brought it back to this house. Where he filled up the cups with water.

Then another thought suddenly struck his mind.

_The compass! Gothi's compass! I didn't find it, I forgot! I wonder what happened to it. _Hiccup thought.

"So, you've got a lot of explaining to do."

Hiccup shook himself out of his thoughts, and looked back at Kormak who was looking at him expectantly.

"Indeed. Where would you like me to start?"

"At the beginning." Kormak replied, now taking a sip of water and wiping his mouth. His plate was finished and so was Hiccup's.

Hiccup wiped his mouth with his sleeve, took a deep sigh and leant back on the chair, though it hurt his wounds a little, he didn't mind.

"My home is far away from here, on an island called Berk. This one night, only about a week or two ago now, our village just started to be attacked by dragons…"

**End of Chapter 15.**

**Sorry about later update, been rather busy. A certain girlfriend does the trick. But it's worth it. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter.**

**Please leave a review, favourite or follow if you are enjoying the story. Still a lot more to go! :)**


End file.
